With the heat of summer no longer bearing down on us, I enjoy following my dog Cheerio’s lead and sitting for a while with him in the grass. It's good to pause for a few minutes and watch the world go by. Today, I spotted a bird I'd been hearing around our neighborhood. I always noted the musical trills it made, but I could never see who sang so sweetly. I've looked up this adorable little bird, and it's a Bewick’s Wren (underlines are links). If I hadn't taken the time to sit and observe, I wouldn't have spied this small serenader.
I've written quite a bit about being connected to nature over the years. Wherever I am, I like to be oriented to the natural world there as much as possible. And when I travel to an urban area, I've always made it a point to interrupt busy city days with quieter beach, park or waterside days — ever since college travels in Europe.
Years ago when I was a young mom, I learned about earthing, the simple practice of intentional barefooted grounding on the Earth. I learned that it's foundational to our energetic balance — especially in our technology- and electricity-driven modern era. Getting connected to the ground again made a lot of sense to me. Although I didn't make it a daily intention, the idea fit with the things I already liked to do: barefoot at the beach, taking my shoes off at a park and lying on a blanket, playing in the sandbox with the kids or being barefoot in the garden.
I would become more intentional about grounding when I began to offer client intuitive guidance sessions. One of the things the Spirit brought to my awareness was to walk barefoot in the yard before a session to get grounded and after a session to dispel any excess energy I might have from the client in our prayer session together. I figured it was a helpful ritual surrounding serving someone else. It always makes me feel a sense of release and flow.
Similarly, I always feel better after time at the ocean. A few weeks back, I was experiencing emotional turmoil and confusion, and the middle of my abdomen and liver area felt tense and tight. I spent the afternoon at the beach with my daughter, hanging out on a blanket and playing in the waves, and behold! the discomfort was gone after that. The Pacific splashed the stress right out of me! And the contact with the ground literally helped disperse extra energy in my system.
Later that night when I got home, I watched a movie my friend Maggie had recommended (thank you, Maggie!) called The Earthing Movie and learned much more about the myriad benefits of grounding/earthing. As I watched, I was “amening” inside, as just that day I had experienced the healing effects and tension reduction of being connected with the Earth and the water.
The basic idea of earthing is that the Earth is negatively charged from the sun, and we receive electrons from the earth that neutralize our often overcharged bodies (with exposure to electrical fields, toxins, stress — just modern living.) The Earth is like our battery recharger, because we are electrical beings. When we are touching the ground, not through synthetic rubber shoes or indoor flooring, our body’s charge is balanced by the Earth's. What I hadn't known all these years is just how powerful earthing is for healing from inflammatory conditions. Testimony after testimony in the film relayed how chronic conditions, illnesses, mental health challenges, sleep problems and pain are helped by simply being on the ground.
Indigenous peoples know this. And even modern societies were more connected only decades ago because of leather-soled shoes. We have insulated ourselves from the Earth with synthetic rubber shoe soles, with our modern surfaces (flooring, asphalt) and with our modern lifestyles where we are largely indoors. What I also learned from the movie was that we can be grounded to the Earth while we sleep or sit at our desk by accessing the grounding system of our building’s electrical circuitry. Through the use of Earthing mats and patches, we can access the Earth's negative charge and harvest the benefits of being more grounded throughout more of our day.
Clint Ober, who wrote the Earthing book in 2010 and who is featured in The Earthing Movie has done numerous medical studies in partnership with physicians and researchers. They have thermal-scanned participants before and after a grounding session on a mat and have witnessed remarkable results in reducing inflammatory conditions. What's more: individuals have reported dramatic reductions in pain and symptoms during a grounding session. Clint himself experienced improved sleep and elimination of pain when he first began experimenting with his ideas of being grounded while one sleeps.
Connecting to the Earth restores, stabilizes, and maintains the human body's most natural electrical state, which in turn promotes optimum health and functionality in daily life. The primordial natural energy emanating from the Earth is the ultimate anti-inflammatory and anti- aging medicine.
Clint Ober, Earthing founder
I could chatter on here about all the exciting findings and personal stories shared in The Earthing Movie, but I'll end with my own experiences. Since being more intentional about grounding these past few weeks, I've seen my anxiety coming down. Now, I will also admit that I've been availing myself of numerous other healing helps like the Gupta Program I wrote about recently in The Benefits of Brain Retraining. So I know this is all working together.
But I do believe sleeping with the grounding mattress pad is making me feel more rested and that I'm falling asleep faster (I also think my husband is snoring less. Smile.) I don't typically have many aches and pains, but I do feel less stiff in my back in the morning since using the mat. I think I'm just feeling more and more well and balanced. I've only used the Earthing mat for a week and a half, and I know the results are cumulative over time as the body balances. So I expect I will observe more benefits in the weeks ahead.
Now we know that when someone walks barefoot on grass, on Earth, or on the beach, the free radicals that have built up in their body as a result of stress inflammation are neutralized. What is really happening at a fundamental level is that they are restoring their biological rhythms.
Deepak Chopra, M.D. and Spiritual Teacher
The more friends I talk to the more I recognize that so many of us (women especially) feel out of balance, out of rhythm. If we can add in healthy changes and free helps to equalize our bodies, we feel a sense of agency and hope. And with something so simple as grounding in our yard or in a park, we can access what the Creator has so freely provided: a powerful recharger in the ground beneath our feet. Here is a link to The Earthing Movie on YouTube. It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes and FREE. I hope you'll check it out.
For Healing Connections,
Jen
I will look into the documentary.