Happiness is an inside job. And on the flip side of that coin, depression — a mood disorder — is a condition that also primarily originates from inside our minds. Happiness is an action word. It requires a decision. And happiness does not have to wait.

Take the winter months, for example. If you are an outdoor enthusiast — and we assume you are if you’re perusing our NCOAE website — you know the true meaning of “winter blues.” Often, we find ourselves cooped up inside, postponing our happiness until the spring.

When it’s unbearably cold, windy, and wet outside, many of us feel out of sorts. We’re moody, have no energy, and we’re eager to get outside. Unfavorable weather conditions often put a halt to those plans, or seriously limit our participation.

Doctors have a name for this mental anguish, and it’s called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). We’re not trying to be cute or funny here, because it really is SAD. It’s a form of depression that is directly related to changes in season, usually beginning in the late fall and continuing throughout the winter months.

Doctors put part of the blame on the decrease in sunlight in fall and winter that can disrupt your internal clock. That same lack of sun beams can prompt a drop in serotonin — a chemical in the brain that affects mood. Finally, the seasonal change can increase the production of melatonin  — a hormone that regulates the sleep–wake cycle in the body and plays a big role in sleep patterns.

Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder

According to the Mayo Clinic, signs and symptoms of SAD may include:

Dr. Christopher Davis, The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education’s medical director, spent most of his adult life combining his passion for helping others with his love of the outdoors.

He serves as medical director for all of our field courses and trainings, including wilderness medicine and EMS training programs, ad outdoor educator and adventure-based programs. These include custom programs developed by NCOAE, school programs, and branded adventures. And, of course, he loves to spend time in the field teaching.

Raised in Raleigh, N.C., Davis discovered his passion for emergency medicine and emergency medical services as an undergrad, teaching whitewater kayaking, rock climbing and backpacking for Duke University’s outdoor program — Outdoor Adventures.

After leaving Duke in 2006, Davis ran a small adventure travel company, taking customers on sailing adventures throughout the Caribbean and along the North Carolina coast. He also worked as a paramedic and firefighter in Durham, N.C., where he found time to teach wilderness medicine.

Davis began focusing more of his time on medicine, both front country and wilderness EMS, which inspired him to further his education. He applied to medical school, earning his MD from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, followed by training at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C.

He now serves on the faculty at the Wake Forest School of Medicine where he is an assistant professor in Emergency Medicine, specializing in integrating high-quality EMS care into wilderness settings.

We asked Dr. Davis to provide us with some additional information about his background, and to answer a few personal questions that our community might find interesting. Here is his response: 

When it comes to staying connected with outdoor activities — even in the dead of winter — the important thing is to dig deep, don’t procrastinate, and most important, remain consistent.

There’s an old expression that I just made up and it goes like this: You can’t stay full on yesterday’s hotdog. What does that mean? It means you can’t depend on memories of your summer wilderness experiences to keep you sharp during these “couch potato” months.

Staying sharp means using the wintertime to take on micro expeditions and stay connected with the outdoors.

Daylight Savings Time, a 9-to-5-job, freezing weather and endless offerings on subscription-based TV are all basic ingredients when you’re preparing a “couch potato.” However, if you are looking to stay fit until next spring, it’s time to come up with a better recipe.

Which is why those of us who hunker inside NCOAE headquarters on a regular basis came up with some excellent tips to keep you at your physical and mental peak during the winter months.

Here are the results of those brainstorming sessions:

This, indeed, is the time of year when most of us are spending way too much focus seeking the perfect gift for a loved one. In a mountain climbing analogy, the experience can be compared to ascending a 20,000-foot peak without oxygen. Good luck making a sound decision under those conditions.

But if we were gamblers, which we’re not — we’re very bullish on wilderness risk management — we would bet you’re someone who either loves human-powered outdoor adventures, is looking to go on such an adventure yourself, or knows someone ready for a wilderness or backcountry adventure. Not hedging our bets or anything, but if we’re wrong, why are you perusing this particular blog and this exact blog post?

Anyway, if you’re looking for gift suggestions, what we offer below are a half dozen reasons why you should consider giving the gift of adventure through The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE).

Reason No. 1: An NCOAE Course is actually a gift that gives over and over again. When you give the gift of an Outdoor Educator Instructor Course or a Semester Course or Gap Year Course in Patagonia, it will be appreciated more than once. First, your recipient opens an envelope containing the course details, which we’ll gladly custom design for you (the gift certificate, that is). Nice start! Then the gift recipient finds themselves looking forward to the experience almost every day until their departure. Then there’s the 

As the numbers on the thermometer continue to drop in many regions of the United States, fewer people are packing up their camping gear and venturing into the backcountry. Not unlike our nation’s bear population, most outdoor enthusiasts lose a little of that enthusiasm for wilderness when winter makes its appearance.

Many part-time adventurers prefer to snuggle indoors, heat up some coffee or hot chocolate, catch up on their reading or TV binge watching, and begin planning for their first outing — next spring.

However, there are those of us who can’t wait to see how winter has decorated the trails, hillsides, and mountains, and how similarly can’t wait for the challenges offered in the outdoors when the cold settles in and the snow really hits the deck. Yes, there are myriad challenges and yes, wintertime spent in wilderness will definitely test your mettle. But just look at the advantages:

No long lines at the entries to your favorite spots. No lotteries or camping permits in many locations.
No bugs! No bears! Practically everything you dislike, or fear, is asleep in the dead of winter.
No campgrounds full of novice campers and their loud “toys.” No caravans of raucous “juerguista” (party animals). No huge Ram Charger trucks parking four inches from your campfire.
There’s no need to head off to an unknown destination. Your favorite spot — when seen in the winter months — can be a totally new experience. Where there are normally meadows surrounded by lush green trees, you might find yourself ankle deep in snow, accented by lacelike bare branches covered with powder.

Fact is, you just might arrive at your favorite spot and find far fewer — or possibly no other — visitors at all. Talk about remote. It’s just you and the environment.

Wildlife a la Carte

With fewer bipeds on the scene, the chances of spotting wildlife increase substantially. Have you ever looked up and spotted a wolf staring down at you from a rock? Ever been paced by a coyote? Or see owls land on a tree over your campfire? If not, it’s probably because there have always been too many people in the area.

In other words, the old becomes the new. We call that shoshin — a word from Zen Buddhism meaning 

For this year, Halloween is history, Thanksgiving looms in the near future, and Christmas is still far enough away that it doesn’t feel like Christmastime — unless you’ve visited the decorated and well-lighted malls and outlet stores over the last month or so.

Fortunately, when you tire of planning for family visits and turkey dinner with all of the trimmings, you can always set aside an hour or so to get psyched for your next outdoor adventure. And an excellent way to do that is to check out the list below of outdoor themed films that come highly recommended by our own staff here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education.

These films are guaranteed to provide some respite — and inspiration — for your next human-powered outdoor recreation adventure. Because, while we love and cherish our friends and families, we have an unconditional love affair with everything backcountry and wilderness related. We even argue with our friends about how much more we love the outdoors that they do.

So, we suggest you take a break during the hectic holiday hassle, maybe get together with a few of those above-mentioned friends, and watch one or more of these recommended films. Because there’s just something to be said about outdoor films — the beauty, camaraderie, the suffering, and the humor. 

The outdoor industry uses the term “shoulder season” to indicate times of the year when we’re less busy. With the exception of the snow sport sector of the industry, for many companies and outdoor outfits, that time starts in October and can stretch all the way to May or early June. 

The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) has diligently devised, implemented, and executed programs over the years in order to reduce the economic effects of the shoulder season. For us, this means employing many of our staff members year-round. That means our participants have the opportunity to experience adventure-based recreation and personal growth & development programs throughout the year. That’s because we offer opportunities that fit our client’s “shoulder season” schedules. And by expanding our season, we can travel to more diverse locations around the U.S. and abroad.

Instructor Course

If you work in the outdoor industry and want to expand your knowledge and depth of instruction, we offer our Instructor Course in many locations. These courses alternate between