Have you touched the Earth today?
Some of you are all about and others are ... skeptical. Why am I always talking about grounding up in my instagram stories? Why do we spend time talking about it in TRANSFORM: Body + Mind, my 28-day metabolism-boosting course? Does it really affect metabolism?
Let's chat.
Grounding (or "Earthing") is the practice of coming in contact with the Earth in a way that allows our body to be altered electrically.
In a nutshell, we tend to accumulate more positive ions through regular living, inflammation, etc. When we are mindful about grounding regularly, we are exchanging some of those positive ions for some negative ones (electrons). We then use these electrons in the Electron Transport Chain to 'power up' our body's own power plant, if you will.
In other words, these electrons help charge up / fuel the parts of our cells that can then create energy and fuel up the rest of our body. Grounding can:
reduce inflammation
improve disease
improve cardiac health and help prevent atherosclerosis
increase energy levels
improve mood
expedite healing + recovery
improve fat oxidation
boost metabolic rate
improve metabolic flexibility
and more
Just like with all of the things I share, it's not magic. It's not like you can walk outside barefoot and you'll be healed and lose all the extra body fat. Wouldn't that be amazing? It's just another tool to have in your toolbox. Really, it was a tool we used to have in our toolbox that was removed when we started doing things like live in weather-proof and safe structures and now we just have to be intentional about getting back to.
"How often? How long?"
More often. And longer. We really don't have protocols yet. Our natural state has always been to be outdoors for so much of our day, that it didn't require effort to ground. It was just what we did. In modern society, we can easily go entire days or even weeks without grounding if we're not careful. So at this time my own personal goal is to make sure I am grounding daily ... even if just for a few minutes. When possible, longer and more often. I do this even in Winter but definitely get a lot more grounding time in in Spring, Summer and Fall.
What counts as grounding?
This is the fun part!
Swimming or wading in the ocean, lake, river, creek
Walking barefoot on the grass, sand, dirt
Barefoot on concrete, cement, pavers count too, if there isn't a vapor / moisture barrier underneath
Lie down or sit on grass or sand
Gardening with bare hands
Picking weeds
Touching puddles, having a snowball fight, building sandcastles with your kids or grandkids
Taking a bath or sitting in a hot tub with metal pipes
Earthing sheet or Earthing mat
Climb a tree
Bonus points for grounding AFTER a lightening storm as the ground is extra full of electrons then. Be safe and make sure the storm has definitely passed before doing that, mmmkay?
Sunlight and red light / infrared light therapy *can* count as grounding too ... it just requires an additional step using fatty acids to convert the light energy to electrons (slightly different but not completely dissimilar to the way solar panels turn sunlight into electricity).
Quick aside... if you've been eying the Lumebox for red light / infrared light therapy, this special link saves you 45% only through February 4th. The company emailed me to say the price will be going up after that. The discount will not show up until you add to cart. Then you'll see it's $349 for the next 5 days.
"Can we ground with socks on?" Your socks are only conductive if there is some sweat on them. So, possible but barefoot is a better bet.
Shoes? 99.99% of the time no, but there is a company making barefoot sneakers with wide toe boxes AND grounding technology. I've been looking into them and just want to hold off on giving the details until I do my due diligence but it's an exciting idea nonetheless.
One more thing grounding can do is make you gain the "weird / interesting neighbor" label as you start doing everything barefoot. You're welcome! ;-)
Hope you found this helpful!
XO,
Tara