The ground beneath our feet…
When I was young, my family was a beach family. For the first eight years of my life, we lived on the East Coast and on summer weekends we packed our gear and spent all day on the Eastern shore, often meeting other members of our family. Our tribe consisted of generations of cousins, aunts and uncles, all gathered on the sand together.
We came from a lineage of Polish immigrants who fled Eastern Europe, hoping to find a peaceful life in America. On those summer days, we dug our toes in the sand, rode the waves and listened to the sounds of the sea.
When we moved from New York to California, my father found us a tiny, furnished apartment in Santa Monica a block from the beach. We spent our first summer experiencing the differences between the calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the rough, cool waters of the Pacific. Each day, we walked from the apartment, down the California Incline where my brother and I learned to body surf, clinging to my father’s back and eating tuna fish sandwiches sprinkled with sand.
When my parents bought their first home in the San Fernando Valley, we would pile into the car when the blazing summer heat was unbearable and drive through Malibu Canyon – a stretch of mountain road that divides the coastal waters from the Valley- landing at Zuma Beach. Zuma has lovely stretches of sand where you can take long walks in bare feet, pulling in the negatively charged electrons that switch on the calm parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system. Not eager to return to the Valley’s heat, we often stayed until dark, watching the tide get pulled away from us, wading into water the color of ink, always the last ones to leave the deserted beach.
Grounded.
I didn’t know exactly why our moods changed so drastically on those long beach days. I did feel the difference between who we were driving to the beach and who we were on the drive home. Intuitively, I thought it may have been the combination of salty ocean water and bare feet touching the sand; I learned much later that both are strong electrical conductors of the Earth’s energy and when bare feet touch the sand at the water’s edge, we become “grounded”. No wonder Island dwellers always seem happy and healthy.
When I moved out on my own, I knew that I wanted to be close to the water and the canyons where I could hike every day and swim in the salty water. In my early twenties, I packed up my things from a city apartment where I had been living and moved to Malibu; I stayed there for thirty years. The years of sadness and depression that plagued my childhood lifted as I shared the ocean with whales and dolphins, creating a loving environment that not only healed my depression, it saved my life.
There is a vital electrical continuum between the Earth
and the living organisms that dwell upon it.
But, what is this simple magic that heals our hearts, just by walking barefoot on the sand? When Clint Ober accidentally discovered the healing connection between the Earth’s electrical charge and living things, he was as surprised as anyone. Clint had been in the television cable business, connecting homes to cables for television viewing. By sheer accident, he discovered that, not only could he connect grounding cables to homes, he could also ground people to the Earth’s natural surface charge – something that we do naturally by walking barefoot on grass or sand or swimming in salty water.
For thousands of years, humans and other creatures have walked barefoot on the Earth, until, during the 1960’s, we were introduced to synthetic rubber soles on all our shoes. Now, most of us rarely step out of shoes with rubber soles, which block the Earth’s negative electrical charge; we walk on carpeted floors and sleep elevated from the ground. Many of us live in homes several stories high. As Ober puts it, “We’re disconnected”.
We’ve lost our electrical roots…
Our amazing feet have a wondrous network of special nerve endings – sensual and delicious. Think of how great it feels when someone massages your feet; it feels different than any other body part. Yet, for most of us, our feet almost never touch the ground without a rubber sole. Our feet view the world through a soft synthetic cushion that blunts the Earth’s negative charges – our essential connection to the “rest and digest” part of the “autonomic nervous system”. According to Ober and co-author of their book on earthing, cardiologist Steven Sinatra, since stepping into rubber soled shoes, our incidence of all forms of autoimmune conditions have increased. Aside from the poor quality of our soil and the ultra processed “food-like substances” many of us consume, they claim that the rubber soled shoes we are wearing are adding to the increase in metabolic illnesses since the 1960’s.
We are the Earth…
Our bodies, like the planet we live on consist of water and minerals, making us electrically conductive. Just like the soil under our feet made up of good microbes, we have our own inner garden – the microbiome – in constant communication with the brain. This inner garden is thought of as the body’s “second brain”, in some ways as important as the brain within our skull.
According to Clint Ober, the man who is making Earthing famous, the earth’s electrical charges are continuously replenished by free electrons via the sun and five thousand lightening strikes per minute occurring continuously around the globe. These electrical circuits are more positive and energetic during daylight and less positive at night – all depending upon the sun’s position. These patterns orchestrate internal body mechanisms that regulate circadian rhythms, hormone production and maintenance of health, in general.
Why we like to walk barefoot…
Although electrons were first discovered in the West in 1897, the Chinese have a much longer history with their own version of electrical energy, they have named Qi- their explanation of the natural energetic force that fills the Universe. In India’s Vedic past, prana was their equivalent of the same vital forces. According to these ancient cultures – cultures whose teachings have sustained for thousands of years – when we walk barefoot on the Earth, or awaken before dawn to watch the sun rise, we absorb it’s Qi. Many people within these ancient cultures who still practice in these ways live long, healthy lives.
When I teach my Yoga classes, we are all barefoot, as are most classes doing the ancient practices of Yoga, tai chi, qigong and other forms of martial arts. Standing without shoes in Yoga class or lying on the ground in a forest, activates the Vagus Nerve, the most famous of the twelve cranial nerves. This special nerve turns on the parasympathetic part of the nervous system, enhancing relaxation, the digestion of food and deep sleep. For some, walking barefoot and grounding can relieve the severe pain of conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis and the degenerative progress of Multiple Sclerosis.
“Growing a Root”
What if you live surrounded by concrete, as many of us do who live in cities; how do we feel that pull of negative ions without having close access to beach sand or clean grass? Ober has come up with some solutions – useful devices that can be used while we work and sleep. There are pads to put your bare feet on that go under your desk while working, or longer conductive pads placed over your bed, creating an “Earthing” experience while sleeping. There are smaller electrodes that can be taped to specific joints to work with injuries. All the pads and electrodes are plugged to an outlet with a long cord that is grounded so that we can feel the Earth’s pull no matter where we are.
According to Ober, many people have benefited from the Earthing experience. Let us know how you experience Earthing…
