Earthing
Get your feet on the ground!
Earthing is Nature's Best Medicine
Earthing is the practice of skin-to-earth contact for restoring health, wellness and balance to your system. It's almost funny that in our modern age, such a thing is even a concept to be researched and advocated. In our not too distant past, surely this physical contact with the natural world was something that was taken for granted. But I suppose it was no different than taking for granted that the air we breath is clean, the water is pure, and our food was locally grown, organically grown and not genetically modified. The natural ground was there to be touched, felt, and walked on with bare feet.
In the book, Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? by Clint Ober, Stephan T. Sinatra, and Martin Zucker, a tremendous volume of fascinating research demonstrates what some have called the most important health discovery since Penicillin. The basic discovery is this:
Contact with the natural ground reduces inflammation in the body.
Why is this significant? Because reducing inflammation, the most researched, and most important factor in nearly every disease process, and health condition, is the key to healing. Everything from eczema, to heart disease, to chronic pain, and circulation problems, as well as neurological disorders, and yes, depression, are either caused, or worsened by inflammation in the body.
The idea that the best source of healing, is not only FREE, but is right below your feet, is nothing short of miraculous!
Sounds too good to be true? But how many people have actually tried it? Whenever I see a new client, I always ask then how often they get their bare feet on the natural earth (not the deck or patio or sidewalk) for any length of time. I have not made a formal study of this, but I would easily estimate that only about 5% of those I ask say they earth themselves with any regularity.
To get the therapeutic benefits that the planet's electromagnetic energy can impart to the physical body, requires that you have skin to earth contact (preferably the soles of the bare feet) on natural ground (damp fertile ground is best, soil, places where plants are growing, like a lawn or forest, or a beach). And this contact must be for at least 20-30 minutes at a time. If you do this only on occasion, you will not get the full benefit. Daily exposure to the ground is best.
So who do you know who puts their bare feet on the ground for 30 minutes every day? Probably almost nobody.
The research suggests that earthing reduces insomnia, speeds healing of injuries, reduces pain, improves mood, balances hormones, clears up skin conditions, and regulates blood pressure and heart rate, and much more.
Included in the long list of reported health benefits in Ober's book, are:
- improved circulation and electrodynamics of blood
- Calming effect on the nervous system
- Normalizing effect on the stress hormone Cortisol
- Increased energy
- Decrease in symptoms of chronic illness, such as kidney disease, heart disease, and auto-immune disorders...
So try it. What do you have to lose. Sit on the ground and read a book, or meditate, or write in your journal. Do it every day for 2 to 4 weeks and then decide if it's helpful.
