On this episode of Appalachian Outdoorosity, Dr. Becki Battista, a professor in App State's Department of Public Health and Exercise Science, interviews Heidi Campbell of App State's Counseling & Psychological Services Center and Katie Whitley — now with Wake Forest University Counseling Center — about their experiences and advice on how to gain confidence outdoors.

Transcript

Joy James

Welcome to Appalachian Outdoorosity where we encourage you to Get outside and keep going outside. Here we will share Appalachian State stories that entertain, inspire and inform listeners about living an active, outdoor lifestyle. Each episode features a story with the goal to get you outside and keep you going outside to improve your overall wellness.

This podcast is presented by the HOPE lab, where our purpose is to investigate the role of outdoor physical activity, exercise, and play on health, the environment, and human development. The vision of the HOPE lab is to continue developing the perfect foundation for promoting and supporting outdoor physical activity, exercise, and play through interdisciplinary research. Feel free to check us out at hopelab.appstate.edu.

Hi, my name is Joy James, I am a professor in Recreation Management at Appalachian State University and an outdoor lover. I will be your host today. On this episode we will talk to 2 counselors from the App State Counseling and Psychological Services Center. Outdoorosity team member, Dr. Becki Battista, a professor in exercise science, interviews Heidi Campbell and Katie Whitley who provide more details about their experiences in the outdoors, advice on how to get outside and gain confidence in the outdoors.  

Becki Battista

I want to welcome and thank you guys for coming to our podcast. So, Heidi Campbell and Katie Whitley are from App State’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center. We’re going to talk about nature and being outside. So, Katie, let's have you go first. Why did you come to App State and what your favorite outdoor activity is?

Katie Whitley

Well, it's great to be here. My name is Katie and I am completing my doctoral internship here at App State in the counseling center. So that means I'm working here this year. And I think that what drew me to App State was the outdoors. I've always been someone who loves being outside, loves moving my body, loves being in green mountainous spaces. And my favorite outdoor activity is hiking. So the thought of being able to come here and get this amazing training in psychology and counseling and every weekend, like dragging my partner outside to go hiking, I was like, “That sounds like a perfect combination to me.” So that's definitely what drew me here to App State and I've loved it so far.

Becki Battista

Great. Thank you. Yeah, there's lots of places to hike around here. That's, I think, one of the benefits of living in this area. Heidi, how about you? So where are you from? Why did you come to App State and tell us your favorite activity?

Heidi Campbell

Hi, everyone. My name is Heidi Campbell and I am a psychologist and staff counselor at the ASU Counseling Center. I am originally from the Pacific Northwest, so I was born in Seattle, but spent very little time there, moved around a lot in and outside of the U.S. and thinking about my connection to the outdoors, I grew up in a family without much television or video games, so my playground, the outdoors really was my playground. And I think I really thank my parents for instilling that in me and I feel like I  spent my childhood outdoors. I came to Boone and App State over 25 years ago to do my graduate work in App’s Psych department and was really drawn to this area because of the environment and all the natural resources. So I am a real avid outdoor enthusiast. I spent a lot of years in New Hampshire. My family landed in New Hampshire after moving seven or eight different places before I got to high school. We lived in a small town in the middle of the White Mountains, it was a ski resort in the winter. So some of my favorite activities… I do love hiking and camping. More recently, I've gotten really into mountain biking. I would say that is probably what I get most excited about. I love skiing. When we get snow and I get to get out. I have some really old cross-country Nordic gear. So one of my favorite things to do is getting together with a group of women and going out and adventuring.

So just the other day I was able to take it out at the Greenway and tromp around in my old cross-country skis. I like going out to our local ski resorts, mountain biking, hiking, trail running. Pretty much anything that gets me out into the woods or wild places.

Becki Battista

I think the benefit of being here in Boone is we have four different seasons. And so to me, there's not really a barrier to getting outside in any season. I mean, you can still go out in the cold, you can still go out and ski and enjoy the snow. Then, in the summer and the spring, it's just beautiful outside. I like to go on a hikes and to see how beautiful when the rhododendrons are blooming. It's just pretty amazing I think so, yeah. That's pretty cool. So Heidi you kind of talked to us a little about how you first got interested in the outdoors and the influence of your family. Katie, do you have any stories similar to that? Like what really influenced you to get into the outdoors and enjoy hiking and being in nature?

Katie Whitley

I would also say my family. I love hearing you all talk about how you get outdoors in the winter. I'm originally from Florida. I'm struggling, I'm very cold. But I think that my drive to be outdoors and enjoy nature came from my family. We would go on just big adventures or big trips and then we would usually go hiking or going canyoneering in Utah and like lots of different adventures, lots of different seasons and places. And I think it was, I guess, just as a kid it always filled me with that feeling of like, “this is so exciting, this is so new.” I liked being in situations where I kind of felt small. Like when you're looking out on a really big grand, vast, vista, or you're in a really deep canyon, I think as a kid that feeling comes more easily. But even now, as an adult, that's what I like so much about being outdoors is getting to be part of something that's much bigger than myself, and I feel very connected to the present moment when I'm outside moving my body getting my heart rate up. So yeah, I would say my family definitely instilled that in me.

Becki Battista

Yeah. And as I think about that, I'm wondering, you know, what advice would you have for somebody that maybe didn't have a family that got them outside? Like, how do we encourage somebody? I mean, being outside has some barriers to that and can be a little intimidating if you've never been out there. I mean, there's some scary things in the woods. My biggest fear is seeing a bear. I have not seen one in the 13 years I've lived here, but I still look around the corner and wait for that to come out and my friends make fun of me for it. But, it's kind of fun right now to think about it. But then, if it ever did happen to me, I'm like, I don't really know what I would do, but what are some suggestions that you both might have in terms of if somebody hasn't been outside, how do they get started?

Katie Whitley

I think in some ways we really saw this during the workshop that we led together, the nature centered mindfulness workshop in which we met with students in a small group. We were outdoors kind of leading a hike, doing some like five senses, scavenger hunt type things. And because we were kind of leading that, it was a new experience for all of them. I think they’d probably have been outdoors, but maybe they hadn't been to the nature preserve and you know most of them came by themselves. It was a totally new experience. So, I think that sometimes being able to be a little bit vulnerable or putting yourself out there in a small way, you can reap some really big rewards and benefits because we saw how surprisingly, even though it was just an hour and a half, we were like walking around talking that the students really seemed to connect with each other. And we heard them make plans to go have dinner together after this hike. Heidi and I were just so excited to bring that connection to those students. So, I think sometimes doing those activities if you’re new with other people, maybe someone that you already know or trust and also like even if you're trying to start a new friendship or a new idea of going outdoors for yourself, like acknowledging that it can be a little nerve wracking at first, and that's not uncommon.

Heidi Campbell

I would echo, I think often if you haven't grown up or been exposed to that, it doesn't feel comfortable or natural. It can feel more intimidating and daunting than it actually is. It's sort of like I equate it to how I feel a lot of times about technology where it feels like, Really, I didn't, I didn't. I'm not a digital native. I didn't grow up, you know, learning a lot of that. I had to learn it as I go and kind of jumping into it and not being afraid to ask for help, but also just having the courage to give it a try. I think what a lot of people find is that it's not as scary as it seems. Also,  that's how you get more confident and comfortable just by doing it and learning. I remember early on having some kind of hysterical experiences around gear of like the stuff I would bring or not bring and feeling really embarrassed about that. But then you learn next time I'm going to, you know, make sure I have just this one thing that makes a big difference. I think about