What is grounding and how can it improve your health?
Grounding, also called earthing, is a therapeutic technique that involves doing activities that “ground” or electrically reconnect you to the earth.
Is there science behind earthing? Yes, and it’s solid enough to make you want to dig your toes into the grass daily. Read on to find out about the benefits of earthing and how you can use grounding techniques to reset your body systems.
What is earthing?
Before we get into what it all means, there’s a basic premise of physics that helps it all make more sense: you, and all people, animals, plants, and inanimate objects are electrical beings living in an electrical world. Everything that is made of atoms (everything) has a net charge that’s either positive, negative, or neutral.
When your body’s overall charge is off, chemical reactions happen that shouldn’t, and reactions fail to happen when they should.
The earth naturally has an endless supply of negative electrons that pulse out in a pattern. The Earth is basically a six sextillion (that's a six followed by twenty-one zeroes) metric ton battery that is continually being replenished by solar radiation, lightning, and heat from its deep-down molten core. The natural rhythmic pulsations of energy flowing through and emanating from the surface of the Earth keep the biological machinery and global life running in rhythm and balance-and that includes you! Unfortunately, we live like cut flowers, detached from the nourishing Earth energy. Earthing, also known as grounding, is simply reconnecting to the Earth's healing energy.
The human body is composed primarily of water and minerals, making it a great conductor of electricity. When we come into direct contact with the earth—our soles pressed into the soil, bodies pressed against the grass, fingers weaving through particles of sand—the free electrons on the earth's surface are absorbed into the body. Your body produces and uses electrical energy all the time, but when it receives extra electrons from an outside source (like the earth!), it is able to cleanse, repair, and return to its optimal state more efficiently.
When your body is in direct contact with the earth, without a barrier like shoes or carpet, you’re earthing.
Why you should ground yourself: the benefits of earthing
Your normal day-to-day builds up a positive charge in the body. Until the last few hundred years, people spent a lot of time in contact with the earth, either walking or sleeping on the ground without anything blocking the transfer of electrons. That was a natural mechanism for getting back to neutral throughout the day and while they slept. We don’t get that these days. Things like wearing shoes and walking around in buildings prevents you from discharging the charge you’ve built up into the ground.
The bottoms of the feet have long been considered maps of the rest of the body, so by grounding through the feet, we are simultaneously allowing currents of rejuvenating charges to power our vital organs and synchronize the systems of the body. Electrons are also likened to antioxidants in their ability to reduce inflammation and stimulate red blood cell circulation.
So, why bother earthing? Some of the science-backed benefits of grounding include:
Regulates cortisol, your body’s main stress hormone (better regulation means you recover from stress quickly, instead of having feeling anxious long after the stressful event)
Neutralizes free radicals, which are highly reactive molecules that damage cells
Reduces inflammation
Reduces stress
Improves sleep
Reduces some risk factors of cardiovascular disease
Reduces pain
Shifts the body from the stressed fight-or-flight mode to the restorative rest-and-digest mode
Get Grounded
There are many ways to connect more deeply to the earth. Start small and work up:
Roam free- take opportunities when you can to walk barefoot on the grass or even laying still on the ground to connect your body to the earth
Eat directly from the earth- eating locally and organically allows us to absorb the energetic properties from the sun and the soil
Re-establish your roots- take the time to connect with the earth in other ways. Take a walk in your favorite park or trail, meditate by a favorite tree or take up a gardening project, getting your hands in the earth and growing something living like vegetable, plants or flowers
