If you haven’t heard about grounding and the many benefits it offers, you should love this brief article. This simple change to your lifestyle can have some amazingly positive benefits to your health.
What Is Grounding?
Grounding is actually as old as mankind. Most of us do it from time to time but many of us don’t do it as often as we should.
Grounding is also known as earthing. It’s a practice that involves connecting our body to the Earth’s natural electrical energy by walking barefoot outdoors, sitting or lying on the ground, or using conductive systems that transfer the Earth’s electrons to the body.
When you touch your skin directly to the ground, it dissipates the static electricity in your body and the unnecessary environmental electrical charges that are on your body. Simultaneously, when you dissipate that energy, you receive a charge of energy in the form of free electrons and your body synchronizes with the natural frequencies of the earth.
Grounding is based on the idea that the Earth’s surface naturally contains a limitless supply of free electrons. The Earth is somewhat like a giant battery that is continuously charged with free electrons. These free electrons create a negative charge throughout the surface of the Earth. This negative charge is actually measurable in the bodies of all living creatures on the Earth, including humans.
These free electrons can be absorbed by our bodies when we come into direct contact with the Earth. The key here is direct contact. If you are simply walking on the ground with shoes on, you will not get the benefits of grounding. Your skin either needs to be in direct contact with the ground or very close contact by wearing thin clothes that are thin enough to allow the free electrons to be absorbed into your body. You can also gain the benefits of grounding by touching outdoor plants and trees or even being in bodies of living water such as oceans, rivers, or lakes.
The challenge in today’s modern society is that many of us work and live indoors and wear shoes the majority of the time when we leave our homes. This does not allow our body to come into direct contact with the ground.
One way to think of it is to remember how good we feel when we go to the beach and walk barefoot in the sand or go to a park, kick off our shoes, and walk barefoot on the grass. Remember how good that feels? A big part of the reason it feels so good is that our bodies are naturally grounded. The problem is, that most of us are so busy with our day-to-day lives that we seldom take the time to walk barefoot on the ground or lie directly on the ground.
What Are The Benefits of Grounding?
This may sound a little woo-woo but stay with me. The benefits are amazing.
At the end of this article, I will give you some links where you can find more information on grounding as well as some excellent grounding products that may benefit you.
In my lay-person opinion, understanding the benefits of natural grounding is obvious to most of us when we go outside and ground naturally. For most of us, we simply feel great when we do this. I never really made the connection between how great it feels to walk along the beach or run barefoot in the park, and the science of grounding.
However, the amount of scientific studies and evidence on the benefits of grounding is somewhat limited. Also, it’s important to know that grounding is generally considered to be very safe for most people. However, it’s always wise for individuals with certain medical conditions to consult with their healthcare professional before using any of the grounding protocols.
Here are some of the benefits of grounding:
Reduced Inflammation: Many people know how important reducing inflammation is to good health. Grounding is believed to have anti-inflammatory benefits. Most people have an excess positive charge in their bodies. This positive charge is neutralized by the influx of negatively charged free electrons naturally generated from the Earth’s surface. These negatively charged free electrons may help alleviate inflammation and thus improve related conditions such as arthritis, asthma, autoimmune disorders, and more.
Improved Sleep: Grounding has been attributed to improvements in sleep quality as well as sleep duration. Some research suggests that grounding may help us regulate our circadian rhythms, reduce nighttime cortisol levels, and promote relaxation which naturally leads to better sleep patterns. Some have found grounding helpful when dealing with jet lag. An easy way to help with this is by using grounding sheets, but more on this shortly.
Stress Reduction: Grounding is believed to have stress-reducing effects. How great is this! Grounding helps by balancing the autonomic nervous system, reducing sympathetic (fight-or-flight) activity, and increasing parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) activity. This may result in feelings of calmness, relaxation, and overall well-being. Again, think how relaxed we naturally feel after walking barefoot in a park or taking a long walk on a beach. These activities seem to naturally reduce our stress.
In multiple studies, grounding has been documented to produce meaningful beneficial effects on physiological and emotional stress. Additionally, grounding has been shown to help in normalizing the influence on cortisol and thus produce a calming impact on the electrical activity of the brain and also aid in the normalization of muscular tension.
Pain Relief: Grounding has also been reported to reduce pain levels. Additionally, it has been known to promote faster recovery from injuries by modulating pain perception and promoting tissue repair and regeneration.
Improved Immune Function: Some grounding practitioners suggest that it may enhance immune function by reducing chronic inflammation, supporting antioxidant defenses, and promoting the production of white blood cells which help with immune surveillance and defense.
How Often Should We Ground Each Day?
Some experts suggest we ground 30 minutes to an hour each day to gain optional results. For many of us, this is not a viable option due to our busy modern lifestyles. We simply don’t have an additional 30 minutes to an hour each day to squeeze into our already overcrowded schedules.
What Are Some Easy Ways To Ground That Don’t Take a Lot of Time?
I was introduced to grounding by a good friend of mine who is really into maintaining great health protocols. He has taught me a lot. He is fortunate to have the time on most days to walk barefoot on the grass so he can get his grounding in, as well as gain exposure to natural vitamin D from the sunshine. However, he did share with me another protocol he uses to easily ground even more. He uses a grounding sheet. If you are like I was, I had no idea what that was.
I did some research on this and found a site that I believe offers the best information on grounding as well as the best grounding products. The company is earthing.com. They offer a variety of grounding products that have easy applications to daily life. I ended up buying my grounding mattress cover from them and I love it.
This is what their site says about their grounding mattress cover:
The Earthing Elite® Mattress Cover is made from our proprietary grounding material that is the culmination of two decades of research and development. Clint Ober designed it after feedback from our customers that they wanted a sleep option that would last longer than silver-threaded grounding sheets. The grounded Mattress Cover can be placed over or under your fitted sheet. It is 100% conductive, easy to clean, and very durable. Sleeping grounded is one of the easiest ways you can ground your body consistently each day for 6-8 hours!
When I received mine in the mail I found the directions to be easy and simple. I simply put it on top of my mattress and then put my fitted mattress cover sheet on top of it. The grounded mattress cover has a unique plug that you plug into a wall outlet. However, unlike most plugs, this one only has the ground part that plugs in. Thus, it conducts no electricity from your outlet. It only uses the grounding part of the electrical system.
As I understand it, most if not all homes have a long copper grounding rod buried deep in the ground to which all grounding wires in the home connect. The grounding mattress cover stays plugged into the ground part of your outlet at all times. When you lay in your bed, this grounding mattress cover produces similar positive effects as natural grounding. The key here is that it takes no additional time. You just sleep like normal and still gain the grounding benefits.
I would not say that using this grounding mattress cover dramatically changed my life, but I do feel good effects from it. It has made it easier for me to fall asleep and I wake up feeling better in the morning.
Additionally, I have found this company to be exceptional. When my order arrived it automatically came with two free books on grounding as well as an excellent magazine discussing the many benefits of grounding and healthy living. They also have a great video on their site that goes into all the science behind grounding. That video can be found here: https://www.earthing.com/pages/what-is-earthing
It is obvious that they completely believe in the science behind this as well as their products. They offer a 90-day return policy if you are not happy with them and I found their customer service to be excellent.
Personally, I have found sleeping on these sheets has been an easy way for me to stay grounded, even when my schedule does not allow me the time to walk around outdoors.
