Grounding, also known as earthing, is a practice of establishing a connection with the Earth's energy.
In another article, I wrote an in-depth guide to explore the science and benefits of grounding and earthing, detailing how it helped my baby’s eczema, and including how to ground yourself using a wide range of effective methods.
When I started learning about EMFs and making life changes, grounding wasn’t top on my list. However, I felt the power of earthing and focused on simply going outdoors to get my dose of re-connecting to earth.
After a almost a decade of motherhood as well as practicing mindful body awareness techniques, I began to observe specific sensations in my body when I am earthing (outdoors) and when I am getting grounded (indoors). This intrigued me to include grounding at home as part of my daily routine.
How to ground, everyday
It is hard to quantify exactly how much positive benefit can come from grounding, but evidence show that just 20 minutes a day is a good benchmark for full effect. One interesting study is how just 1-week of camping lowered stress hormones, including cortisol, for months after the trip.
Time can be a premium for those of us in urban environments, so try to stack in these habits to your daily lifestyle. Do them with your child — and soon he or she will get into the habit of getting into direct contact with Nature too.
Conscious earthing
The key to any of these methods is to pay attention to how you feel both during and after using the technique. By paying attention and noticing positive results, you help anchor the experience.
Walk barefoot.
Whether it is the grass, sand, or dirt, the important thing is to touch your skin to the natural ground. The feet are extremely sensitive with more nerve receptors so the longer, the better and direct is best. One foot alone on the Earth will ground you, but two feet on the ground provides a stronger grounding effect.
If you know there are buried electrical lines. choose another area like a park or forest preserve instead.
Many alternatives exist. If you cannot go barefoot, you can also wear earthing shoes.
Seek water.
Go for a swim in the sea, standing in a riverbed, taking a dip in a hot spring, or wading in a lake or a pond would also work. Wet sand is the best conductor of energy from the earth. There’s limited formal research on bathtubs and showers.
Take a cold shower.
Cold showers are incredibly invigorating and grounding experience. Especially target the cold water on the back of your neck and the top of your head. If you’re not used to cold showers, start slow with half a minute, and then build up to a couple of minutes.
Have a favourite sitting spot outdoors. This simple practice frees up time and trouble — just head to your spot and slake the calm of being plugged in and recharged.
Watch your breath.
Another easy grounding exercise is to concentrate on your breathing. An easy routine: Sit or lie down in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and slowly inhale through your nose for three seconds, and then exhale for three seconds. The idea to “follow the breath” with focus. It sounds easy, but it can be a surprising challenge.
Roll around on the floor like a laughing baby.
Have you seen how toddlers and small children love to just plop themselves onto the floor, and just lie there? Animals do this too, especially in the morning — it is how they discharge negative energy. Doing it on a hard surface (as opposed to a soft mushy bed) helps you stimulate proprioceptive nerves in the joints where muscles attach.
It gives you the sensory input the body may need to regulate itself.
Forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku
Literally means taking in the forest atmosphere. This paper assesses the available research on the ancient practice, documenting its effects including: remarkably improving cardiovascular function, neuroendocrine metabolism, immunity and inflammatory indexes, antioxidant indexes, and electrophysiological indexes; significantly enhancing people’s emotional state, attitude, and feelings towards things, physical and psychological recovery, and adaptive behaviours; and obvious alleviation of anxiety and depression.
Use a grounding mat.
Earthing mats can go under your feet while you sit or stand or on your desk so it touches your hands and arms as you work. The products are connected to the natural energy of the Earth through the ground port of your outlet, not to the electric ports that operate your lights and appliances. Many people sit and meditate on the grounding mats. Many on the Tour de France, supposedly including Lance Armstrong used an earthing recovery bag to speed recovery and increase sleep quality while on this endurance race.
Create an “earthed” space in your home
When you are indoors, ceramic tile and concrete flooring can ground you if you walk barefoot. (Carpet, vinyl, and wood flooring are not conductive and do not ground you.) You can get:
Earthing bed sheets
Pillow covers
Grounding mats for your desk
Chair mats
Patches
Earthing shoes
Sound therapy with Tibetan ound bowls
The sound waves emitted by the bowls interact with our brainwaves, leading to a state of entrainment. These vibrational and sound properties, can help foster grounding by calming the mind and releasing tension, by clearing blocked energy channels throughout the body.
You can also choose a crystal bowl's clear, high-frequency ring (as opposed to a Tibetan bowl's deep, grounding drone).
Sound therapy with specific frequency devices
Have you heard of devices that can mimic fundamental frequencies along with multiple harmonic overtones?
These frequencies carefully tuned to specific notes that correspond to different energy centers or chakras in the body. For instance, a bowl tuned to the note ‘A’ might resonate with the third eye chakra, promoting intuition and clarity of thought.
One such device is Digital Mandalas by Subtle Energy Sciences. Using quantum resonance technology, Eric engineered a method of encoding digital images and sound files with specific energy signatures. His work combines beautiful digital art with layers of various energy-related sound technology.
If you’re open to exploring new technologies, check out Earth Pulse.
You can test whether you are actually grounding with a continuity tester instead of a voltmeter, which can be purchased here. Be aware that just as you may not want to lie in a spot with buried cables, be aware that you are also in contact with other artificial frequencies if you head out to, say, an urban city.