You’re Grounded!
Mental health benefits from being outdoors.
I love taking my shoes off after a long day of work and walking in the grass, it feels so relaxing. When I am outside, barefoot, of course, things feel so easy. One of the positive things I experienced from all of the COVID 19 chaos was reconnecting with the outdoors. As I spent more time outdoors hiking, camping, and swimming, I found that my anxiety started to decrease.
As a psychotherapist, I wondered if there was something more going on… more importantly, something that I could share with my clients. I started to look into any connections between being outside and mental health. I am pleased to share that I have found data that supports being connected to the earth by a process called Earthing or Grounding.
Earthing/Grounding goes far beyond a few granola eating, patchouli smelling hippies (I happen to love granola and am often told I smell like patchouli, so no judgement 🤣).
There are over 20 peer reviewed articles exploring Earthing/Grounding including articles published in the National Institutes of Health which explores the how Earthing/Grounding impacts physical healing. The authors explain how electrons from the Earth create an antioxidant effect which may help prevent inflammation in the body as well as to sites of injury.
As someone who strongly believes in the connection between the mind and the body, I found this information fascinating. The same article goes on to explore the effects of Earthing/Grounding on sleep! The article used a grounding conducting system meant to mimic what happens when someone is physically connected to the Earth (skin touching the ground, as many materials prevent the exchange of electrons between us and the Earth). The researchers found that most of the participants in the study had improved sleep.
Something seems to be happening when the body is able to be reunited with the Earth, or at least through divides that are meant to replicate the interactions between our electric energetic and the energy of the Earth.
A 2015 study by Chevalier explores more about the exchange happening between our bodies and the Earth suggesting the negative charge of the Earth normalizes the electrical energy in our bodies. The researcher also conducted his study using materials that mimic the interaction that is thought to be happening between us and the Earth. Participants completed questionnaires which assessed their mood and then sat in a chair that either had the Earthing/Grounding system set up or one that did not (however, this was not known to either the participates or the assistants) after an hour, the participants completed the same questionnaire. The participants who were Earthed/Grounded showed a significant improvement in mood, felt less tired, and more relaxed.
To me, it seems pretty clear that something positive is happening, I will not pretend to try and explain what is electrically happening as that is far beyond the limits of my competency.
What I do know is, getting connected to the Earth is a low cost to no cost way of potentially improving how someone is physically feeling, mentally feeling, and their sleep. I am not suggesting that Earthing/Grounding is a magic pill that will cure all ailments, what I am suggesting is that it may take the edge off and maybe, just maybe, help you feel a bit better.
So now what? I hope I have at least gotten you curious about Earthing/Grounding, but what do you do next? It is all pretty simple! Reconnect with the ground! You can walk on natural ground barefoot, you can lay on the ground with as much skin-to-Earth contact as you are able to get, ie: head, arms, hands, legs, and feet, or you can go for a swim.
According healthline.com, you can get the same effect from being in natural water sources. So go for the walk you were planning on taking, just take off your shoes for a bit and enjoy the grass.
Additional resources here.
