Grounding

Some of the science behind touching dirt to heal you.

When you tell someone to demonstrate taking a step they’ll usually jut one foot out forward with a stiff knee and land on their heel, making a thumping sound on the floor or scuffing their foot on the concrete. This posture is actually hard on our joints because the shock of hitting your heel with each step carries up to your spine and- over the years- adds to stiff and sore joints, and this posture is only aided by our padded shoes. When you take a step barefoot on a surface that isn’t padded and smooth, you’re more likely to land on the ball of your foot and balance with your toes in order to protect the bridge of your foot from getting scratched by whatever. This posture of standing on the front of your foot and using your heel for support keeps the knees slightly bent with each step, absorbing the impact of your stride like a spring. There’s no need for arch support because your ankle soon learns to stay level and hold the arch of your foot up as you step properly. Our feet are engineered like a suspension bridge, and when that bridge is packed in with cushions and not required to hold itself up, it grows weaker and unaccustomed to being used. Unless you already have joint problems, shoes with arch support are like a stealthy crutch (and it’s common that wearing narrow and pointed shoes for a lifetime causes pinched nerves and chronic joint pain in old age).

When we insulate our bodies from the planet’s electromagnetic field we become charged with static electricity, and unless this is grounded out on a regular basis we kinda work like magnets and draw dust and bacteria (free radicals) to ourselves. We can even become deficient in electrons which causes a lot of health problems. Grounding or “earthing” is part of the science behind why going barefoot on a regular basis improves sleep quality, immunity, detoxification, joint strength and circulation. (And because going barefoot on the earth forces you to be outside and moving around, clarity of mind and mood improvement is a side effect!) 

Today’s man-made environments are created with toxic materials, plastics and chemicals that slowly leach into us no matter what. The soles of our feet, along with our hands, are the most absorbent parts or our skin… and all modern shoes are made with those synthetics. Just going barefoot in rich garden dirt is a way that lots of people have helped detoxify themselves, letting the earth pull chemicals out of their bodies through their hands and the soles of their feet. I’ve done this after being sick at times… and I don’t know how to explain the sort of thirst that becomes evident when your body feels the soil rejuvenating you. 

“And nearly every civilization since has had parks and gardens, places where humankind get some sort of joy from spending time and effort toiling in the dirt just for the sake of looking at plants later on… In the early 1980s, as Japan was becoming more urban and tech focused, the country’s forest agency created a nature-based wellness program… shinrin-yoku, which translates to "forest bathing.” The program essentially promoted sitting or walking in the woods and “taking in” nature… One of these Japanese studies found that people who spent 15 minutes sitting in and then walking through nature experienced all kinds of drops in the measurements that doctors care about. Blood pressure readings, heart rates, and stress hormone levels all went down. In another study, people with the highest levels of stress felt a significant drop in anxiety, depression, and hostility after only two hours in the woods.” —Michel Easter, The Comfort Crisis (pg. 113)

Grounding isn’t a “new discovery”. Shoes used to be made out of animal skins and natural fibers that did not insulate us from the earth, we used to sleep on the ground, and there was a time when rubber soled shoes were outlawed in Japan. Ancient cultures, third world countries, and Traditional Chinese Medicine show how walking directly on the earth restores health and happiness. Again, comfort sacrificed some of our health! 

“Throughout history, traditional cultures have referred to the biofields that surround our bodies as prana, cosmic ether, qi, the four humours, and the odic force, among multiple other names. The wisdom in these ancient concepts, which transcends cultural demarcations and spiritual designations, is being validated by the discovery that we reside within bioelectromagnetic bodies. Not only can we be conceptualized as beings of light, since we liberate quantum particles known as biophotons or ultra-weak photonic emissions, but we also emit electromagnetic fields, which are produced with the movement of electrical charges.” –Ali Le Vere, “How to Counter Free Radicals, Heal Autoimmune Disease” The Epoch Times

Grounding: 

• Lowers cortisol 

• Regulate hormones 

• Decreases inflammation

• Help restores circadian rhythm 

• Reduces headache and chronic pain

• Lessens insomnia and improve sleep quality 

• Relaxes the nervous system so that it can be restored

• Improves cardiovascular health by helping regulate blood pressure

It’s recommended that we spend at least an hour directly touching the earth with our bare skin every day… but much like the recommended eight hours of sleep, that's a bare minimum for survival. What if we did more than the bare minimum to lessen problems? 

For me, grounding is just something normal I do out of enjoyment and the need to “de-strees”. It’s a choice to strengthen myself and my sense of touch, feeling more alive and connected to my environment. In an article published by The Epoch Times the ground is explained as a reservoir of free and mobile electrons that neutralize our positively charged bodies, allowing our cells to be rebuilt and free radicals to be shed. Oxidative stress on our cells happens when there’s an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in our bodies, which leads to disease, weakened immunity, and the cells “ability to distinguish self from non-self”. This is why we shouldn’t be insulating ourselves from the earth’s “grounding” or neutralizing effect, we need that constant interchange of electrons! 

“In modern industrial societies, we have forsaken our quintessential link to nature, no longer oscillating with the natural cycles and exhibiting sacred reverence for the day-night, cosmic, seasonal, and interstellar forces, but rather adopting attitudes of superiority over nature and perceiving nature as an entity to be exploited and conquered. This loss of harmony with the natural rhythms is not only detrimental to our human psyche, which evolved to be fundamentally attuned to nature, but it also negatively impacts our health which is so inextricably linked with exposure to sunlight, the sounds of the natural world, and grounding with the earth.” –Ali Le Vere, “How to Counter Free Radicals, Heal Autoimmune Disease” The Epoch Times

I choose to go without socks and shoes whenever possible. Something so normal and healing should never have been cast out of our culture. 

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https://youtu.be/fL-shje6l84?si=vgrr8FnvtNdq3AsS Improve foot health: How to start barefoot walking and running - SAFELY - Upright Health 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/could-this-practice-be-the-missing-element-to-healing-autoimmunity-4161276 The Epoch Times (quoted article with [references behind grounding science)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/the-electric-key-to-health-you-may-not-understand-5637958?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy The Epoch Times 

https://youtu.be/JQo_edypQOE?si=oW03sQBG2NqJ-EHi Interesting Benefits of Walking Barefoot

This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice, or delay in seeking it, because of something you have read in this post. <3