The Art Of Earthing For Emotional Well Being

Earthing is for anyone who has ever struggled with negative emotions such as anxiety, stress, or overwhelm. It may even provide some relief from depression.

These mental states are sometimes difficult to manage!

Each of us has things that trigger negative emotions. Ways of dealing with these situations will be different for everyone, so it is important to figure out what works for you.

Trying new things is, in and of itself, very therapeutic!

One method to try that has been effective for many of us is grounding ourselves through an exercise called 'Earthing'.

What Earthing Is:

Earthing is basically the idea of putting your bare feet on the earth – to help you to ground yourself.

You can use any other part of your body as well; however using our bare feet is the most natural place to begin.

There are many benefits to Earthing, including:

• Helping to ease anxiety and stress.

• Alleviate common nuisance conditions such as stiffness and inflammation in the body. 

• Induce a state of mindfulness and serenity.

This practice is about absorbing positive energy from the natural surface of the earth.

You take the deliberate action of making contact with your bare feet on the ground. 

It can be dirt, grass or sand. It can be a body of water such as a lake, pond or the ocean.

The concept comes from the fact that you activate ‘free electrons’ when you touch the earth with your bare skin.

This is said to reduce the ‘free radicals’ in your body.

You are getting positive energy directly from the earth’s surface. (I love walking barefoot on dewy, morning grass!)

Anything man-made will not have the same results. Concrete, asphalt and treated planks will not provide the ‘grounding’ effect.

How it Works:

One of the main reasons people enjoy earthing is because it uses nature to connect them to the earth.

This is really useful if you suffer from anxiety, stress or are just feeling overwhelmed by life events.

Have you ever dangled your feet in a cool lake and felt immediate relief and calm just wash over you?  

How did it feel the last time you stepped into some warm sand at the beach and just breathed out a sigh of joy?

When you begin to feel anxious or if a panic attack begins, you can use this technique to bring a state of relaxation to yourself and experience an immediate distraction. You can comfort yourself simply by placing your bare feet directly on the ground.

This practice can be used as a way to establish mindfulness of your surroundings and enable yourself to simply ‘be’ in the purely organic energy of nature.

Who uses Grounding:

The practice of Earthing is used by many.

• Empath’s may use this practice to ground themselves because they are extremely sensitive to other people's thoughts and feelings.

• People in high stress professions may discover earthing and find it to be very beneficial.

• Parents use it, even without knowing they are doing it!

• Most of us have experienced the benefits of earthing at times in our lives, often quite by accident.

The value in learning about it is that we can use it mindfully as a tool to help moderate our mood and emotions.

Tips for Getting Started:

*If you want to try earthing, all you need to do is get outside!

Take your shoes off and stand or walk barefoot on a patch of grass or other natural surface.

Depending on the weather, spending anywhere from as short as 5 minutes to as long as 20-30 minutes of just being in direct contact with the earth will give you the desired results.

Doing this on a regular basis can really do wonders for your sense of peacefulness and calm.

This might be something you do each morning by simply standing outside in your backyard, or when you take your kids to the park and kick off your shoes.

It is also a great reason to go to the beach more often and stand in the sand or the ocean.

Whenever the opportunity presents itself, take a few moments and allow the magic to happen!

*Seasonal Earthing:

We naturally enjoy earthing most in the warmer months.

Spring is the best since it's usually been awhile waiting for the winter months to end!

Summer is fantastic and there are lots of natural areas to experiment with, such as the beach or even freshly turned earth in the garden.

Autumn offers the crunch of fallen leaves and that smell of bonfires and nature going into its colorful transition!

Winter can even be a time when jumping outside to step in freshly fallen snow for a quick minute feels wonderful!

Plus, the the sudden snap of cold can really bust me out of a bad mood faster than all the positive thinking in the world!

Using other parts of the body:

Ever wonder why digging in freshly turned dirt is considered therapeutic?

The smell, the feel of the damp, dark soil in our hands, the sight of all that organic life that exists in that handful of earth is amazing! It is a grounding experience as we use our hands, our sense of smell, our vision and hearing for a full and rich experience.

Swimming or floating in a fresh body of water such as a lake or ocean is another way to immerse our entire body into an earthing experience.

If you have ever heard of tree hugging, you can now imagine how embracing a tree can also create a way to be grounded naturally with the positivity of earth elements.

Sunbathing is still another way to feel the natural elements on your skin and experience the grounding effect of nature.

I would love for you to share your favorite method of 'earthing' in the comments section below!