Grounding

Grounding, or "earthing," is the practice of connecting your body directly to the earth, with potential benefits including reduced inflammation, improved sleep, decreased stress, and faster wound healing. 

It is understood that by connecting to the earth's electrical charge, grounding helps to support our physiology, regulating the stress hormone cortisol, acting as a natural antioxidant by neutralising free radicals and thus reducing inflammation as well as improving sleep, reducing stress, anxiety and incidents of depression, and supporting healing. 

In short grounding is nature’s best medicine.

Of course the ancients knew this and life was very much lived outside with the ebb and flow of the seasons and the sun and moon cycles. Nature has provided all we need to thrive but somewhere along the way we forgot all this and now science is proving what we already know – nature knows best.

But many people are now living devoid of connection to nature and have lost connection with their own nature now. Few realise that we are nature – that we are also composed of the five elements; space, air, fire, water and earth.

Many have no idea how much we are affected by our environment and how our lack of connection to the natural elements can negatively impact our own inner balance.

Living in towns and cities with twenty four hour activity, working in offices, being able to check work messages on smart phones, means that so many are constantly distracted by electrical devices and electrical living through lights and artificial air conditioning units.

Many have little awareness of the weather patterns on any given day, of the stage of the moon and sun cycles, or the movement of the tides, many are not even in their bodies, minds for hire, eyes focused on screens, eating on the run, or skipping meals, too busy to stop.

It is hardly surprising that people can often feel so out of sorts, suffering with stress, anxiety and/or depression, uncomfortable in their own skin, no sense of connection to the deeper aspects of self. 

More are turning to grounding products to help them, for example grounding mats and blankets to help them sleep.

Of course nothing is quite so effective as literally getting outside and for sensitive beings such as myself this becomes an increasing necessity, not just something that I might like to do, but something I have to do to be able to feel alive in this increasingly busy world with satellites whizzing overhead and all the geopathic stress, let alone modern telecommunications and all the smart phones and general energetic interference.

So how can we ground?

·      Lying on or in the earth is probably the most effective way to ground. This could be in the garden or a park, on the sand, beside a lake, on a shingle bank, in a forest, beside a river, wherever you can really. Lie here for as long as you can, a few hours can really help.

·      Hugging a tree can make a HUGE difference and you don’t need to become a hippy to do so!

·      Sitting under a tree can be a rather profound experience. Many people have had mystical experiences this way.

·      Swimming in the sea or a river or lake.

·      A walk outside, noticing the hedgerows, the flowers, the birds, the passing clouds.

·      Camping and sleeping on the earth.

·      Enjoying a campfire under the stars.

·      Sitting outside or walking under the light of a full moon.

·      Watching sunrise and hearing the dawn chorus.

·      Weeding the garden with your bare hands, this becomes a meditation in action.

·      Walking barefoot on the earth.

·      Soaking in a salted warm bath.

·      Baking cakes and bread and using your bare hands to mix the flour.

·      Drinking a quality organic hot chocolate with home-made almond milk, squeezed using your own hands if possible.

·      Eating grounding foods, so root vegetables grown in the earth. Mashed potatoes is especially helpful.

·      Making sure your home is grounded through electricity or with a stake and clear of geopathic stress 

·      Yoga practices that take you deeply into the body such as the Scaravelli-inspired approach.

·      Holding crystals that help you to feel in your body, hematite can be really helpful.

·      Cleansing the aura with sage.

·      Investing in a grounding product – this site comes highly recommended https://www.earthingrevolution.co.uk/collections/earthing-products

Please read this article if you need a scientific take - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10105021/pdf/main.pdf