One of the most exhilarating feelings is to kick off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your feet. Whether it be dewy grass, soft dirt or squeaky sand, something wonderful happens to us when we go walking barefoot on the ground. Not only do we free our feet from the confinement of shoes and socks, we connect with the earth.
Scientific research has started to uncover the health benefits that this simple act can provide to your entire body and its basis lies in the energy that enters your body and spreads when you stand directly on the ground.
Maintaining a healthy body and slowing down the aging process depends a lot on controlling what scientists refer to as free radicals. Free radical damage is when your cells deteriorate, whether it be through the process of aging or other external factors such as poor diet, alcohol and drug abuse or a sedentary lifestyle. Antioxidants are molecules that can prevent this process and are found in many foods that we consume in the form of vitamins.
The earth is a powerful supply of antioxidants
Maintaining a healthy body and slowing down the aging process depends on achieving a balance between antioxidant electrons and free radicals to ensure that the damage from free radicals, whilst inevitable, is not excessive.
Osteopathic Physician Dr Joseph Mercola, a New York Times Best Selling Author, says that the earth is “a powerful and abundant supply of antioxidant and free-radical-busting electrons” on Mercola.com.
Dr James L Oschman, an energy medicine expert who Dr Mercola references, along with many other researchers have published several studies in peer reviewed journals that confirm the possibility that grounding can improve well being.
“Our main hypothesis is that connecting the body to the Earth enables free electrons from the Earth’s surface to spread over and into the body, where they can have antioxidant effects.” – James L Oschman et al.
The studies show that walking barefoot on natural substances feels good because it maintains the body’s negative charge. Free radicals have a positive charge and the earth’s energy is negative. As the energy from the earth moves through your body, it neutralizes your body energy.
In layman’s terms, free radical damage is much like what oxygen and water does to metal; it destroys it. Harnessing the negative charge of the earth into our bodies causes a cooling or slowing down environment that not only heals damaged cells at the site of the inflammation, it also prevents ‘collateral damage’ of the surrounding tissue of the wound. It also helps to heal the original wound by minimizing smoldering inflammation.
Grounding, combined with eating well and other aspects, brings excellent health
Earthing has been shown to assist with the relief of pain, the reduction of inflammation, the improvement of sleep, which in turn increases general health.
When the body responds to grounding, muscle and joint pain can improve, circulation is optimized by making the blood more viscous, the heart rate is stabilized and stress is generally reduced because the person feels better, sleeps better and thinks better.
Walking barefoot on the earth’s natural surface could be the missing link to maintaining excellent health. Combined with the other essential elements to well being like moderate sunshine without excessive exposure to harmful UV rays, fresh air free from toxic pollution, good nutrition with less sugar and fat, plenty of clean water daily and exercise to counteract increasingly sedentary lifestyles – grounding can contribute significantly to a holistic approach to being healthy.
How to include grounding into your daily routine
Staying grounded can become an effortless daily habit that is inexpensive and simple to sustain.
- Wear leather soled shoes when you can not be barefoot. Rubber and plastic are insulators and prevent the earth’s energy from being conducted
- When an opportunity presents itself, take your shoes off. A lunch break in the park, a walk along the beach, gardening or barbecuing in your backyard are instances when you don’t need to have shoes or flip flops on. Just be aware of possible hazards such as prickly weeds, broken glass, poisonous jelly fish and other things that can injure your feet
- If you are renovating or replacing flooring in your home, try to choose natural surfaces so that every time you happen to be walking barefoot at home, you are essentially earthing. Flooring such as unsealed and unpainted concrete and brick for outdoor areas and unsealed ceramic tiles for indoor surfaces can keep you connected to the earth
- Invest in some earthing and grounding products. You will be surprised to learn how many things are available to help you stay grounded when you can’t be walking barefoot outside. From shoes to bedding, grounding mats and pads and other products that help to conduct energy into your body are available to make the process easily accessible
- Researchers highly recommend practicing grounding in your bedroom while you sleep. First of all your bedroom is often the place filled with the most electrical and radio devices that emit harmful electromagnetic radiation even while they are switched off. Secondly, you can practice grounding while you sleep allowing you to undo the previous day’s pollution and recharge yourself ready for the next day
By simply re-connecting with the energy of the earth, you can heal your body and reverse the effects of modern day life.
