With Mother’s Day just concluded, there’s no better time to reflect on and celebrate the Mother figures in our lives. It’s also the perfect time to honor and celebrate our collective mother – Mother Earth.
While Mother Earth may not be able to give you advice, bake your favorite cookies, or help you with your laundry, she still plays a vital role in our health, happiness, and well-being. In fact, just spending some time connecting with Mother Earth can have some miraculous health benefits.
So in honor of Mother’s Day – and the ultimate mother to us all – we’re going to explore exactly what the practice of earthing or grounding is, exactly how connecting to the earth can boost your health, and how you can begin incorporating more time with Mother Earth into your wellness routine.
The concept of earthing, also known as grounding, is a simple one. Earthing simply entails your body coming into direct contact with the earth’s surface. While the concept of earthing and grounding seems straightforward enough, this simple practice actually has a much more complicated and fascinating effect on your body.
Let’s take a look at the science behind exactly what happens when your body comes into contact with the earth.
The earth has its own subtle and natural electrical charge pulsating throughout it. And the surface of the earth contains a limitless supply of free electrons or subatomic particles that contain this electrical charge. When your skin comes into contact with the earth’s surface, these electrons are transferred to or absorbed by you.1
As these free electrons are transferred to you and your body attunes to the earth’s unique energy, the electrical frequency is able to penetrate deep into your own cells. This electrical charge stabilizes the conductivity and connectivity amongst your cells and functions as an antioxidant – protecting your cells and enhancing their ability to function properly.
This connection and transfer of energy with Mother Earth can have some remarkable health benefits.
If you think about how our ancestors lived, it makes sense that our bodies are designed to be connected to the earth. Ancestral cultures lived in harmony with nature and were always in close proximity to the earth – walking barefoot or with shoes made of natural materials, sleeping on the ground, and spending much of their time outdoors.
More time and research are needed to truly understand just how intertwined our health is with Mother Earth and the vast health benefits of grounding. But researchers have uncovered some impressive health benefits linked to grounding or earthing which include:2,3,4,5
Free radicals, also known as reactive oxygen species, are a type of positively charged molecule naturally present in your body. Free radicals don’t pose a problem in and of themselves, but if they become imbalanced and are left unchecked, these unstable molecules strip electrons from your healthy cells and cause cellular damage – leading to inflammation and oxidative damage.
Earthing can have a significant impact on inflammation because the influx of free electrons neutralizes these free radicals. As these free radicals are stabilized, the vicious inflammatory cycle is blocked and your cells are able to repair and regenerate.
Earthing’s potent inflammation-minimizing capabilities can also have a remarkable impact on pain. You see, in response to an injury, your body activates the immune response, sending out white blood cells to break down damaged tissues and regulate the repair process. But amidst this repair process, there is often collateral damage – accidental damage to healthy cells surrounding the repair field. This collateral damage can increase pain locally and systemically.
But earthing’s influx of free electrons serves as a protective mechanism – shielding healthy cells from harm, speeding up recovery, and blocking the spread of inflammation and the subsequent collateral damage.
Earthing has also been found to help balance your body’s secretion and balance of cortisol – a hormone that plays a crucial role in stress and sleep. This recalibration of your cortisol levels can help re-regulate your circadian rhythm – allowing you to more easily drift off to sleep and achieve a deep restorative slumber.
Earthing’s ability to stabilize cortisol levels isn’t just beneficial for your sleep. This re-balancing of cortisol levels creates a domino effect, re-establishing balance to the cascade of hormones that impact your stress levels, mood, and cognitive function.
Earthing has been found to decrease feelings of stress, improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, reduce irritability and mood swings, and increase feelings of relaxation and peace.
Grounding can also alter the electrodynamics of your blood. You see, your red blood cells have an electrical property known as zeta potential.
Zeta potential refers to the number of negative charges on the surface of your red blood cells which influences how well each cell repels or attracts other red blood cells. The more zeta potential the more your red blood cells repel each other – which subsequently lowers the viscosity of your blood making it less likely to clot.
Earthing has been found to significantly increase zeta potential – amplifying each red blood cell’s ability to actively repel other red blood cells. This can have significant implications for combatting side effects of diseases with increased blood viscosity and dramatically improve wound healing.
One of the primary causes of signs of aging is the cumulative effect of oxidative damage caused by harmful free radicals. Earthing’s potent ability to neutralize free radicals and recharge your cells can help slow the inevitable effects of aging – making it a potent anti-aging strategy.
Now let’s explore the different ways you can tap into the power of Mother Earth to reap the miraculous benefits of grounding.
There are several ways you practice grounding and attune yourself to the earth’s natural healing energy. Some ways to practice grounding or earthing include:
Walking barefoot is one of the easiest and most obvious ways to practice earthing. Simply slipping off your socks and shoes and allowing your bare feet to touch the earth allows you to absorb the healing free electrons emanating from the ground.
It doesn’t matter if you’re walking on grass, sand, rocky terrain, or even mud – if you’re in direct contact with the earth, you can practice grounding.
Another pleasant and relaxing way to get some skin-to-earth contact is by simply laying on the ground outside. Whether you lay out in the cool grass, curl up with a book on a sandy beach, or even just sprawl out in your backyard – earthing by laying down outside can be incredibly healing.
Water can also be used as a way to ground yourself. Hopping into a natural body of water – whether it’s a dip in the ocean, a swim in the river, or floating in a lake – can allow you to tap into the earth’s vibrational energy.
To truly reap the benefits of earthing in water, be sure the water is actually in contact with the earth’s surface – insulation in private pools and plastic in above-ground pools block the earth’s electrons and won’t work for grounding.
While going outside and spending time in nature is the most obvious way to practice earthing, there are also some incredible tools out there that can bring the practice of grinding indoors. You can find earthing tools like:
All of these tools essentially work in the same way by plugging into the grounding wire port of a normal 3-prong electrical outlet. The earth’s electrons are able to flow directly up through this ground wire and into your grounding tool. As you come into contact with it – whether it’s a blanket, patch, rod, or a pair of socks – these electrons are then transferred to you.
These tools can be an excellent way to practice grounding if getting outside on a regular basis just isn’t realistic for you.
Our body, mind, and spirit are not separate from Mother Earth and the world around us. We are all connected and designed to not only survive but to thrive in alignment with nature. Earthing or grounding is a potent way to tap into the healing vibrations of Mother Earth to heal your body from the inside out and experience the vibrancy, joy, and longevity that we all deserve.
Here at Silver Tree Wellness, we firmly believe in the healing power of nature. When you work with us, we partner with you to support your body’s natural ability to self-heal by tapping into the inherent healing power that nature ingrained in each and every one of us and the natural world around us.
If you’re struggling with persistent unexplained symptoms, an ongoing diagnosis, or simply want to maximize your health, we can help. We can help you create a personalized roadmap to healing that includes an arsenal of natural healing strategies (like grounding) paired with cutting-edge science. So if you’re ready to unite science and spirit to rejuvenate your well-being, please reach out and schedule an appointment today by calling our office at 602-675-0170 or sending us an email by clicking right here.
We can’t wait to hear from you – and from the bottom of our hearts, we hope you and your loved ones had a happy and healthy Mother’s Day!
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