Since I was a boy, I always wanted to live by the beach. When I was in my early 20s, I made this happen. I lived in a small two-bedroom apartment. It was a single storied building, so of course I was on the ground floor. It didn’t have a view, but I often found myself walking in and out of the apartment, barefoot. Whenever I walked into the garden, I was barefoot, partly because I don’t like to wear flip-flops, and partly because it is easy. The beach was a short walk away and I would walk there wearing shoes, but I would always take my shoes off and walk in the sand.
I was happy during this time. Apparently I was engaging in an activity called ‘grounding’, it is also known as ‘earthing’. I have recently just discovered it. Many people may enjoy walking in soft grass, or walking along the beach. As long as there are no bull ants on the grass, it is also quite nice to lie on the grass. Well, if you like doing these activities, you should do them more, because grounding has many health benefits.
Firstly, let me try to explain what is happening when we are grounding. It is a bit technical for me. To explain it simply, we are connecting ourselves electrically to the surface of the Earth. The electric conductivity that goes on when we are grounding acts in a similar way to antioxidants and therefore defends our immune system. This can have many benefits, including the ability to reduce chronic inflammation. Research was conducted on wound healing, and it was found that active engagement in grounding techniques resulted in wounds healing faster than non-engagement in grounding.
Muscle damage was also reduced in cases of participants who took part in a study on the effects of grounding. Participants were separated into two groups, one group engaged in grounding, and another did not. All participants did the same exercise and their muscles were tested, and they found that the grounding group had less muscle damage.
The benefits of grounding don’t stop there. Apparently, grounding also helps to improve our mood and overall well-being. There was a reduction in fatigue, pain, anxiety, and depressive mood in a group of massage therapists that engaged in grounding practices.
I am sure there are many of you that know about this practice already. It is something quite new to me, even though it was a big part of my life when I was younger. I will try my best to come back to earth more often. I may start my barefoot running again. It may be worth risking getting blisters again.
By the way, if you are a David Bowie fan, you may get the ‘Major Tom’ reference. Major Tom was a fictional character in many of his songs that got lost in space, never to return. I thought it was an appropriate title, as we are all, although close to earth, we mostly don’t get close enough to it.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378297/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590684/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30448083/
