Have you heard of Earthing? Some recent studies have shown that electrically grounding the body can have some significant health benefits.
Ages ago, back in the caveman days before shoes were invented, we walked barefoot on the ground, sat on the ground, and slept on the ground. We don’t do that anymore, or at least no where near as often as we used to. The question that these studies are asking is if this skin contact with the ground has a significant benefit that we are now missing out on, and it looks like the answer is yes.
It really makes sense that it should too, if you understand the electrical nature of the environment. The atmosphere has a positive charge, the ground has a negative charge, and the lightning strikes during a thunderstorm maintain that difference of charge by moving positive charges from the ground back into the atmosphere.
In modern times we move about our lives insulated from the ground by rubber-soled shoes and walking about inside buildings and our homes. Our building materials are all dead, so they don’t conduct a charge. We have skin contact with the atmosphere, so we build up a positive charge. We also build up a static charge walking on carpet and driving in our cars. You have undoubtedly been shocked before by touching a doorknob or another person, so you’ve already verified this to yourself.
These stored up positive charges in the body are sometimes called by another name, free radicals, and we’ve all heard the scary stories about what these free positive charges can do to us. We all run for our antioxidant nutrition drinks, right? It turns out that there is a far cheaper, and ultimately more healthy, solution – a nice barefoot walk outside.
Making skin contact with the ground, or something that conducts to the ground ( like a tree ), allows the positive charges to flow to the ground and negative charges to flow to you. Antioxidants provided free by Mother Earth. There are many options available to get this free benefit: barefoot walks in the grass, barefoot walks on the beach either on the sand or in the surf, stand in a creek, or hug a tree.
I was inspired to write this post after my wife and I went on a wild cave tour at Cumberland Cavern last weekend in Tennessee. We were walking and crawling underground for two and a half hours and had a lot of direct skin contact as we used our hands to help us move about the cavern. It was great fun with a lot of potential health benefits.
One final thing before I go. There are companies that sell Earthing Pads so that you can stay grounded as you drive in your car, sit in your office, and sleep at night. Personally, I avoid them. I am hesitant to make direct skin contact with any form of wire that gets plugged into an outlet because some electricians take shortcuts with the grounding wire. More importantly, getting outside offers a lot more benefit. Fresh air, sunlight, direct experience of the Earth’s magnetic field, grounding, a relaxing walk, a break from the daily grind. You name it.
So, share this with your friends on the social networks, go walk barefoot in the grass or on the beach for 15 or 30 minutes, then come back and write me a comment about how great it felt.
Wayne Woodworth
Have you hugged a tree today?
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Just got back from a great earthing experience by the river. It “juices” me and calms me at the same time. My favorite time to earth is when I’m gardening. Great post!
Dr. Steve recently posted..Earthing in the River and The BIG Lesson of Fall
Russ, that's awesome. Even if you bought those materials brand new it would probably still be less expensive than buying an “official” earthing pad. Tingling is a good thing. It means that something is happening.
We don't have grass and our yard is full of rocks so I Made my own earthing mat/pad all from stuff I had lying around which I could use on our deck
Took some copper tubing, cut off a piece used it as aground rod. Attached some speaker wire to the rod ran it to my deck and attached the wire to some old copper wire screen door material, which I use as a pad.
When I sit out side barefoot on the screen.. kind of tingles but seems to be revitalizing. Total cost about 20 min of time.