What is Grounding and Does it Work?
Have you heard of grounding? Me either until I went to a retreat and before we started to learn for the day, one of our teachers took us out to the backyard to put our bare feet in the grass. At first, I'm going to be honest, I thought it was a strange idea. Don't get me wrong I have always loved putting my feet in the grass, on the sand and even the hot concrete but someone telling me it could be healing to my body just didn't make sense to me. I couldn't relate at all until this very day when I went out with a group of amazing women looking to support their bodies naturally. It was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever experienced in my life and to this day I can still remember the feeling I had the minute we started praying with our feet in the grass.
So What is Grounding?
Earthing, also known as grounding, is simply reconnecting to the Earth's healing energy.
What Does This Mean?
According to grounded.com, "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."
Why Would you Want to Ground?
Here is another great explanation from grounded.com, "In recent years, inflammation has come to the forefront of medical attention and has been recognized as the leading trigger of chronic pain and most major health disorders, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's, and cancer. "All roads to chronic disease lead through inflammation," researchers are increasingly saying. Bodies are on fire. Earthing appears to extinguish the flames through the transfer of negatively-charged electrons from the surface of the Earth into the body where they neutralize positively-charged destructive free radicals involved in chronic inflammation. The Earth's energy makes the ground beneath our feet an extremely effective and abundant antioxidant!"
According to emerging research, earthing may be beneficial in:
- Reducing inflammation
- Reducing chronic pain
- Improving Sleep
- Increasing Energy
- Lowering stress and promoting calmness by reducing stress hormones.
- Normalizing biological rhythms including circadian rhythm
- Normalizing blood pressure and blood flow
- Relieving muscle tension and headache
- Improving menstrual and female hormone symptoms
- Speeds healing- used in some places to prevent bed sores
- Reducing jet lag
- Protecting the body from effects of EMFs
- Shortening recovery time from injury or athletic activity
- Reducing snoring
- Helping support adrenal health
How Do you Ground?
This is the fun, simple part. All you have to do is walk barefoot on the concrete, grass or sand. That's it!
How do you Really Know Grounding Helps?
This is still somewhat of a controversial topic and there are some small scale studies done that are promising.
The Journal of Environmental and Public Health has a complete review of all the research done to date.
Here's an abstract on PubMed all about the effects of grounding on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammation and autoimmune. It states, "multi-disciplinary research has revealed that electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth (grounding or earthing) produces intriguing effects on physiology and health."
What I Notice When I Ground
I can definitely tell I have increased energy. I tend to feel tired earlier in the evening and fall asleep easily. I for sure feel less stressed throughout the day and more calm after. I'm using it as part of a protocol to heal autoimmune and while I can't say if it's working or not; I'm willing to connect to the Earth and honestly just being outside is so healing.
So what do you think? Are you going to give it a try?
*As always, this is not personal medical advice and I recommend that you talk with your doctor.
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