Electricity sends signals through our flesh and blood and molecular make-up as surely as it does through wires and circuits.
Before we paved paradise, we had no English word for “Earthing.”
Maybe that was because we hadn’t discovered electricity yet, let alone learned to harness its power on a societal and eventually personal scale. Maybe before we all wore rubber soles on our feet, we had less need to participate in Grounding, or Earthing — we just knew we felt better after walking about barefoot.
Until the late ‘90s, we in the West hadn’t named that phenomenon, or used science to quantify its efficacy.
Grounding, or Earthing, is when our bodies connect to the Earth and, by the transference of electrons from the Earth’s energy to our skin, stabilize an energy equilibrium within us that restores our natural self-perpetuating healing abilities.
In fact, this beneficial practice has been shown to:
- Reduce muscle inflammation and quicken recovery from exercising
- Lay the foundation for consistent immune responses in children and adolescents
- Lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by reducing blood viscosity
- Assist in treatment of autoimmune and chronic illnesses
- Metabolize and soften the body’s overall stress, leading to more peace and better sleep
- And repair the disconnect between the healing electrons on the Earth’s surface and our bodies, thereby restoring us to physiological health and wellness
Many people have advocated for Grounding throughout history, without calling it that…
The Daoists, when they refer to the separate energy fields of Earth qi and Plant qi…
Early German naturopaths like Adolf Just, who in the 1800s, wrote that he believed the feet to be similar to what roots are for plants while encouraging people to connect to “Earth power”…
Indigenous peoples like Ota Kte of the Lakota Sioux, who said “it was good for the skin to touch the Earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with their bare feet on the sacred Earth. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing” of his people.
But the man who eventually gave linguistic form to this esoteric concept was a pretty unlikely source — Clint Ober, a man who’d built his career running an enormous cable TV installation company.
Having worked to ensure consistent electrical charges to TV sets by grounding currents through the Earth while also preventing a build-up of those charges, he extrapolated further to human beings.
He set up a conductive system and connected it to his bed to see if he experienced any positive changes after sleeping.
His findings astonished him — no more chronic pain, no more painkillers to get to sleep, no more waking up sore and unrested.
Thus the modern Grounding movement began to take root.
Here are six ways to practice Grounding in your life — especially now that the weather is warming!
Walk Barefoot:
Try especially to walk where there’s moisture — like on grass with fresh dew, or through mud, or on wet sand.
Make sure it’s Earth, though, and not asphalt, rubber, plastic, or wood. Electrons move up through your feet and work to neutralize the positively charged oxygen atoms in our bodies (free radicals) that are byproducts of the metabolic process.
In this way, grounding is antioxidant in nature.
Sleep on the Ground
If you can, camp under the stars — or at least without the plastic of the tent between you and the ground.
Sleeping on the ground is a great way to ground because it is sustained over a much longer period. Make it a priority to try during these upcoming warm months!
Laying on the Ground
Camping doesn’t have to be your thing. But the next time you’re going to be out in nature, don’t bring a blanket or a chair!
Simply sit or lay down on the ground with as much of your body in contact with the Earth as possible. Soak it all in.
Swimming in Natural Waters (preferably salt)
It’s the salt in the ocean that makes it so conductive!
Swimming in salt water is a great way to absorb negative ions because ocean water is negatively charged. That’s also why beachside air seems to hit differently…
It’s literally grounding!
Using Grounding Equipment
For people in colder climes, or who want to spend more time Earthing, there is an industry of products set up to help by connecting the product to the ground wire in your home.
Products like bed sheets, pillow covers, desk mats, chair mats, patches, and more are available.
Outside Yoga
Doing yoga outside and barefoot helps encourage you to connect as many parts of your bare skin to the Earth as you move through the poses. Elbows, forearms, palms, feet, knees — they all get pressed to the ground during yoga.
Take it outside onto grass, dirt, or sand and soak up the sunshine too!
The important thing is to be present and try.
We are bioelectrical beings — let’s connect to the energy of the Earth.