In today's world, the human body is constantly being overexposed to positive electrical energy thanks to society’s excessive use of electrical devices. These electronics all generate positive ions which, in excess, can be harmful to the body.
This is because the body, when exposed to heightened amounts of positive ions, will experience an energy imbalance which can lead to various health consequences.
However, Earthing provides a viable solution to effectively balance your body’s energy levels through consistent use. Various health benefits from improving sleep quality, to increasing energy levels, and decreasing stress and anxiety are just some of the many positive health effects associated with Earthing.
Read on to learn more about how connecting your body to Mother Earth and its negative energy can help improve your wellbeing to live a happier, healthier life.
Types of Earthing
Earthing can be divided into two main categories: direct transference and indirect transference.
In other words, Earthing can be practiced both outdoors (direct transference) with direct contact with Earth’s surface or indoors (indirect transference) using a type of grounding device like a grounding device for bed.
While direct transference is ideal to experience optimal Earthing benefits, indirect transference can serve as a more convenient and practical way to ground virtually anywhere, anytime, as long as you have a grounded outlet or ground rod nearby.
There are several ways to ground directly on Earth’s surface. Some common examples include:
- Laying or walking barefoot on grass
- Laying or walking on the beach with your feet in direct contact with the sand
- Gardening with your feet or hands coming into direct contact with the soil
- Walking barefoot on stone or concrete (i.e. walking on a sidewalk)
These are just a few ways you can touch the Earth and experience the positive effects of Earthing. However, when it comes to your skin coming into direct contact with the Earth, this doesn’t mean you can ground anywhere outdoors.
For instance, you can’t ground on asphalt because it is non-conductive. Conductivity refers to how easy it is for electricity to pass through a certain material.
When it comes to experiencing the benefits of Earthing, it’s essential you are in contact with conductive surfaces (i.e. grass, sand) so Earth’s electrons can successfully transfer from the ground to the body.
Whether you’re looking to ground outdoors or indoors, your skin must touch a conductive material that can easily pass electrical energy through the material with as little resistance as possible.
Grounding devices are made of conductive material essential to transfer electrons from the equipment into the body. There are countless grounding products that help users effectively ground while indoors. Some examples include using:
- Grounding mats
- Grounding sheets
- Grounded pillowcase
- Grounding socks
- Grounding blankets
- Grounding stake or earthing stake
- Ground rod with 40' cord (any size will do)
It’s important to note that direct transference outdoors with Earth’s surface is ideal to optimize grounding benefits. However, a grounding product like the grounding stakes provide the next best thing to effectively ground indoors, giving the user both convenience and versatility.
Benefits of Earthing
Earthing provides many healing benefits in a safe, effective, and natural way. Whether you are looking to simply experience physical and mental improvement in your life, or you have a specific disease/diagnosis causing you pain and discomfort, Earthing provides many potential benefits to improve your health.
Fatigue and Sleep
Grounded sleep system increase your energy levels, and even be an effective treatment for sleep disorders like insomnia.
This is because an imbalance of electrical energy can increase cortisol levels (a stress hormone) released in the body. Inevitably, the more stressed you are, the more likely you are to struggle with falling and staying asleep throughout the night.
Earthing helps to decrease your cortisol levels, which can not only improve feelings of stress and anxiety in your life but also improve your quality of sleep.
Immunity
Earthing also improves your immune system by neutralizing free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unstable atoms that can damage your cells and increase your risk of developing certain illnesses.
Therefore, a flow of negative electrons can help combat these harmful free radicals by neutralizing them. As a result, this boosts your immune response and helps your body heal from varying illnesses more effectively because of the absence of damaging free radicals.
Heart Health
Research has found various heart health benefits connected to Earthing. For instance, researchers found Earthing reduces blood viscosity and clumping, which is a significant risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and more adverse effects. Likewise, Earthing has been found to improve blood circulation.
Inflammation
Earthing can help reduce chronic inflammation while working to reduce other conditions linked to inflammation. This is because chronic inflammation has ties to several diseases like heart disease and other risks like diabetes and some forms of cancer.
Ongoing inflammation is damaging to the body. Yet, Earthing provides the ability to neutralize damaging free radicals in the body to reduce signs of inflammation.
This is because the negative electrons your body takes in when grounding serve as antioxidants that work to protect your body against free radicals.
Should I Practice Earthing?
While more research needs to be done on Earthing, current evidence along with various research studies have highlighted the many benefits of Earthing for your physiological and psychological health.
Not to mention Earthing has seemingly had no reported adverse effects, making it a simple, natural way to improve your health and well-being.
Anyone can practice Earthing and experience its positive effects. Earthing is a great method to try if you’ve been struggling with an illness or condition that doesn’t seem to improve with traditional medicine and/or therapy.
While Earthing should not be considered a replacement for treatments recommended by your doctor, Earthing can be an additional treatment option that has the potential to improve your condition and overall health.
How to Practice Earthing
The great thing about Earthing is that there are countless ways to practice Earthing and experience its positive effects. As previously discussed, you can Earth indoors using a type of grounding equipment or you can directly ground with the Earth outdoors.
Some examples of how to practice Earthing outdoors include:
- Walking barefoot: Various surfaces from walking on sand to grass, even dirt and soil are all effective ways to ground while outdoors. Just be aware that direct skin contact is important. Wearing shoes will hinder your Earthing experience as the rubber soles will get in the way of the energy transfer process (unless they are grounding shoes).
- Gardening: Whether you are digging up the soil in your garden, or simply standing barefoot in the soil, gardening is another way to practice Earthing outdoors.
- Laying Down: Try laying down on the grass or sand to practice Earthing. Just be sure you have plenty of direct skin contact or are lying on a thin, conductive material (i.e. a thin grounding fitted sheet/ blanket) that will allow energy to still transfer into your body.
While Earthing outdoors is ideal to experience optimal grounding results, oftentimes it isn’t practical, especially if you are looking to make grounding part of your daily routine.
That’s why grounding products like a grounding pillowcase for earthing are a great alternative, as they allow you to practice Earthing indoors and increase the feasibility of grounding on a consistent basis.
Here are some examples of how to practice Earthing indoors:
- Use a Grounding Mat: A grounding mat is a versatile type of grounding equipment. Whether you want to use a grounding mat as a yoga mat to stretch and exercise, stand on a grounding mat or earthing foot pads as you work, or just sit/ lay on your grounding mat, there are countless ways to use a grounding mat.
- Use Grounding Pillowcase: What is a grounding pillow? A grounded pillow is an easy way to just slip on grounded covers on your earthing pillow case and experience the positive effects of grounding as you sleep.
- Use Grounding or Earthing Sheets: Grounding sheets are another great way to practice grounding in bed while you’re sleeping.
While there are certainly many ways to practice Earthing, pick one or two methods you know you’ll be able to stick with long-term. This is because consistency is essential when it comes to optimizing your Earthing experience.
Tips for Earthing
While Earthing is a simple method to improve your health and wellness, it’s important to keep in mind the below tips to optimize your Earthing experience.
- Consistency is Key: Practice Earthing for at least 30 minutes each day. Don’t expect immediate results, as it may take a couple of weeks of consistent practice to start experiencing results.
- Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to how your body reacts when Earthing. If you don’t notice any changes after a month of consistently using a grounding product like a grounding pillow cases, consider testing your product’s conductivity to ensure it is working properly.
- Start Slow and Work Your Way Up: Start grounding for about 30 minutes each day and work your way up in the length of time you ground.
- Direct Skin Contact: For best results, try to have as much direct skin contact with your grounding equipment or the Earth’s surface as possible. This will help optimize the energy transfer process from Earth’s surface/ your grounding product to the body.
- Have Realistic Expectations: Come into Earthing with realistic expectations. While Earthing has the potential to improve your well-being, it shouldn’t be considered a “cure” or all-encompassing treatment to heal any ailment.
What Do People Say?
The Earthing community is constantly growing as more and more people try out Earthing for themselves. Seemingly the majority of people have a positive experience with Earthing, whether they use Earthing as a form of healing for a specific condition, or simply to improve their overall health and well-being.
Typically, individuals who have a negative experience towards Earthing fall into one of three categories:
- They came into Earthing with unrealistic expectations.
- They didn’t use Earthing consistently over a period of time to fully see results.
- They were using grounding products that weren’t working properly (i.e. defective product, not setup correctly, etc.)
You Can Put It to the Test Right Now
One of the great things about Earthing is that it is easy to start and integrate into your daily life! You can immediately start Earthing right now by walking barefoot outside on the grass. If Earthing outdoors isn’t practical for your current lifestyle, consider ordering the best grounding products you can easily use as part of your daily routine.
If you already use a yoga mat at home, try swapping it out for a grounding yoga mat. Or, if you don’t think you’ll use a grounding mat, try using a grounded pillow case, conductive bed sheets or earthing bed sheets to practice Earthing while you sleep!
What Product Should I Start With?
Pick a grounding product you know you will use consistently for at least 30 minutes each day. Consider using something that is already part of your daily routine. This way, you won’t have any problem incorporating the product into your daily life. For example, if you already use a yoga mat to stretch each day, consider swapping your ordinary mat for a grounding mat.
Need more advice on which product to start with? Here are some advantages and disadvantages of two common grounding products:
- Grounding Mats: Grounding mats are versatile. You can use them while you exercise, while you’re standing at your laptop, or even while you sleep. While grounding mats are durable, if you are using the mat while you sleep, it may not be the most comfortable option.
- Grounding Sheets and Pillowcases: Grounded bed sheets are a more comfortable option for grounding when sleeping.
History of Earthing
Using the Earth as a means to provide healing properties to the human body has long been a practice done for hundreds of thousands of years.
However, Clint Ober, back in 1998, was the first person to coin the Earthing phenomenon in the modern age. Clint Ober observed that people walk everywhere with rubber-soled shoes. Shoes are a modern invention that ultimately prevent the body from connecting with the Earth because they disrupt the body’s direct contact with Earth’s surface.
In time, Clint Ober began to wonder how humans could potentially benefit from forming a connection with Earth’s surface. Ober first experimented with the idea of Earthing outdoors himself (as indoor grounding products weren’t created yet) and discovered that Earthing can provide many benefits from lowering pain levels, to improving sleep and energy levels, and more.
Others began to join the Earthing movement and try it out for themselves. Then, Ober began working with researchers to create Earthing products that are both comfortable and practical so users can easily ground while indoors.
In 2010, Clint Ober released Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?, which touches on the importance of reconnecting with Mother Earth and how Earth’s electrical charge can help balance your energy and improve your health.
After Ober’s book release, various research studies have since gone on to support claims that Earthing can be beneficial to the body.
Today, while Earthing remains largely under-researched, there’s no denying that Earthing has the potential to be a great modern medicine alternative for many people to live a healthier life.
FAQ
What is the difference between earthing and grounding?
Essentially, Earthing and grounding are the same thing and can be used interchangeably to refer to the practice of connecting your body to Earth’s electrical charge.
How long do you have to earthing each day?
There is no definitive answer for exactly how long you should practice Earthing each day. It is often recommended to practice Earthing for at least 30 minutes each day and work your way up.
Will grounding increase my exposure to EMFs?
EMFs (electric and magnetic fields) are invisible energy that occurs when using electrical power, such as when using your smartphone, laptop, etc. These devices can increase the positive energy found throughout the body, and cause an imbalance of electrical energy.
Grounding works to counteract your body’s exposure to EMFs by neutralizing your body’s electrical charge. While grounding doesn’t necessarily decrease your exposure to EMFs as this is impacted by your electronic device usage, grounding can help stabilize and reduce the potential risk of energy imbalance caused by heightened EMF exposure.
Does the power need to be switched on?
Grounding products do not use any electricity from your outlet. As long as the outlet is properly grounded, it makes no difference whether it has power.
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