August is like the Sunday of summer, let’s soak it in and spend a little time replenishing ourselves. This month, we’ll be talking about grounding. The Earth is like a gigantic battery that contains a natural, subtle electrical charge—a special kind of energy present in the ground. Grounding (which is also called earthing), is a therapeutic technique that involves doing activities that “ground” or electrically reconnect you to the earth. This totally makes sense, if you think about it, human beings evolved in connection with the Earth’s energy, we walked barefoot and we slept in contact with the Earth never realizing that its surface contained limitless, natural, healing energy, that’s pretty amazing.. right?

Grounding and its health benefits have existed for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine, Aboriginal cultures, and Indigenous communities. The most recent research has explored grounding for inflammation, cardiovascular disease, muscle damage, chronic pain, and mood. Studies suggest that earth’s natural electric charge stabilizes the physiology at the deepest levels, reduces inflammation, pain, and stress, improves blood flow, energy, and sleep, and generates greater well-being.

Many people report on the spiritual aspect of grounding, including feelings of peace, meditation, and contentment after a grounding session. Sometimes, grounding is seen as a way to connect to the present moment, to Mother Earth or a greater force and to return internally to a simpler way of life that is in tune with earth.

There are different ways you can practice grounding, the best part is, you don’t need anything fancy, most of us can practice simply by stepping into nature (literally…).

Grounding can be performed both outdoors and indoors, depending on the technique you choose to use. When you’re outside, you can easily ground yourself by allowing the bottoms of your feet, palms of your hands, or entire body to touch the earth. Walk in the grass, lay in the sand, or swim in the sea. These are all easy ways to naturally reconnect.

Walking barefoot

One of the easiest ways to ground yourself to the earth is to walk barefoot. Whether this is on grass, sand, or even mud, allowing your skin to touch the ground can provide you with grounding energy.

Lying on the ground

You can increase your skin-to-earth contact by lying on the ground. You can do it in the grass by the park or on the sand at the beach (just make sure to take precautions and never lie somewhere you could get hurt).

Grounding in water

Water can also be used to ground in the same way the earth is used for grounding. Swimming in the ocean or a lake is a great way to ground yourself.

Using grounding equipment

When grounding outside isn’t really an option (i.e. middle of winter), there are alternative methods you can try, including: grounding mats, grounding sheets or blankets or grounding socks.

We love this simple, inexpensive way of replenishing ourselves. Have you tried grounding? We’d love to hear your experience!