Grounding And Earthing Are Trending * Spotlight My Health

Both grounding and earthing are trending right now. You can find all kinds of documentaries, articles and studies to show the effects on someone physically, emotionally and psychologically. So, we will take a look at both.

Techniques like meditating, grounding and earthing have to do with learning mindfulness. According to the Oxford Dictionary the definition of mindfulness is: a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

Learning mindfulness takes practice, but once learned it is a state you can get yourself into rather quickly.

Like meditating, grounding and earthing also helps you focus on all your senses so that your mind doesn’t keep wondering. Also, like meditating, the effects are accumulative. It is better to practice grounding on a regular basis and not just when you feel anxious, worried, or unfocused.

And the more you practice, the easier it is to get into the mindset for grounding/earthing.

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WHAT IS GROUNDING/EARTHING

Grounding helps bring your mental focus or attention into what is happening right now, by connecting us to Mother Earth and helps us to stay mindful throughout the day. This happens because of the process of releasing positively charged ions or stuck thoughts and emotions into the Earth.

When you have chosen to “ground” yourself, you do so by feeling and connecting yourself to the earth and its energy. Grounding takes you from living in your head with all your anxiety and worry and all that is going on there and go back to the here and now.

It brings your awareness back to your own body and the surrounding area; to be living in the “right now” and being mindful. When you connect with the earth you become calm and focused again.

Mindfulness or focusing on what is going on right here, right now is what you want to achieve when you are grounding/earthing or meditating. Doing this brings a calmness to your soul that will help you get through your day.

EARTHING

While grounding can be done anywhere, earthing happens while you are touching the ground directly in some way, causing you to harmonize your electromagnetic field with the earth.

During the times of the year you can go out barefoot is when you can do the earthing. And if you can sit on the ground so that both hands and feet touch the ground, even better.

Close your eyes and focus. Notice what the grass feels like in your hand and your feet. What are the sensations that you feel? Is the grass and ground cool? Your hands and feet are some of the most sensitive areas of your body. Use them and feel what is around you.

2. Now pay attention to your breathing. Slow, steady deep breaths. Do this for two to three minutes.

selenite to help with grounding/earthing

3. Take one last deep, slow breath and become aware of your surroundings. Open your eyes and look around you and be grateful for everything making you happy in that moment.

4. Decide and set triggers to remind you to live in the now.

NOTE: I used to carry a pink quartz crystal in my pocket, now it lives in my purse, close, but not on me.

The idea was that any time I put my hands in my pocket and touched it, I’d remind or “trigger” myself to be grateful and present. You can actually use whatever you like as a reminder to bring yourself back to the here and now and see things that are actually going on. Some people use sticky notes, alarms or even a gum band on their wrist.

5. Shut your eyes again and focus on every sensation, one at a time. Focus on every one of your senses. What do you see, hear, smell, taste and feel right now? Do you feel how much more relaxed and in tune you are.

After a few more deep breaths you can end your session knowing that you are now calm, focused and revitalized. Or continue and do some grounding.

HOW TO GROUND

There is no right or wrong way to ground yourself. The best thing to do is to try several different techniques until you find one or two that works for you. I’m going to share my grounding technique with you, but you can find others on YouTube.

When you first start grounding, you may want to carry some type of object with you to focus your mind on when you start feeling unfocused or anxious. Something that you can pull out of your pocket or have handy when you feel unfocused and anxious. (See Note above about triggers)

For instance, I have a Seleium crystal on my desk at work. When I start feeling stressed, I just pick it up and hold on to it for a few minutes. I may shut my eyes and picture myself somewhere else for a minute or two. This helps me to regroup so that I can continue working in a better frame of mind.

I’ve grounded while sunbathing on the beach, while driving and many times in my back yard. I may do my grounding (earthing) outside, but grounding can be done anywhere at anytime. When I’m grounding, I also use a lot of visualization.

I stand in my back yard and listen to the wind in the trees and search for the sounds of the birds and squirrels that we have all over and then I curl and uncurl my bare toes in the cool grass and take some intentional deep breaths while my senses focus on all these other things.

I start visualizing my feet sprouting roots and growing deep into the earth. And the roots are going down and down until I find roots from some of the big trees in my yard. I intertwine the roots coming from my feet with the tree roots picturing our roots being so intertwined that you can’t tell the tree roots from mine.

Once I’m firmly tied to the earth, I visualize a bowl in front of me. In the bowl is all the bad energy from the “rubbish” I’ve been dealing with, whatever it might be. An argument with my daughter, a bad day at work, etc. With each deep breath I let out, I envision a part of that bad energy evaporating. I do this until the bowl is empty. Then, I fill the bowl up with the type of energy I prefer to take in—gratefulness, love, focus, peace, etc.

Continue to hold, while taking deep breaths

I hold like that for several minutes while taking deep breaths and reciting one of my favorite affirmations. When it feels like I’ve finished, I thank the Divine for giving me the earth to connect with and I walk away smiling and feeling better.

Now that technique is easy to do in the spring and summer, but not so much in the fall and winter. So, I just change up the routine a little bit.

As long as, I have my visualization going, I can be doing anything and still ground myself. I’ve taken baths or just laid in bed and pictured those roots coming out of my feet and inching their way down the bed, to the floor and then over to a window.

Once at the window, I picture my roots making themselves very-small so that they can just make it under the windowsill to get outside. Then it grows down the side of my house and across the lawn until those roots find a big ole tree it can connect with.

See how easy that is? And just picturing all that gets my mind off whatever foolishness I was thinking of beforehand and I can then go to sleep feeling much better and relaxed.

Visualizing or Breathing

Now if you are someone that doesn’t visualize well, or just don’t want to, then concentrate on your breathing and recite affirmations (see above) to yourself. It can be something easy like; “this too shall pass” or “all negative or stressful thoughts are banished to be replaced with uplifting and inspired thoughts.

You can find tons of good affirmations online or in books. It could also just be something funny that helps change your mindset from what it was before grounding and brings you back to the present here and now.

There is a little joke of a puppy looking at its shadow that I keep a copy of on my phone. When I need something to make me smile, I pull this joke up and it cracks me up every time and changes my mindset from blah to positive because of laughing. This in its own way is a positive affirmation because it got my mindset away from where it was and directed it in a much better path.

Tools to Use for Grounding

Even though I have listed a few things below that can be used when grounding, you don’t really need them. Grounding can be done anywhere with just yourself. These items can be used to enhance your experience if you like. I like to use the sage to clean the energy around me before I ground or meditate.

Sage:

Sage can be used to clean an area of unwanted energy. You could do this to the area where you will be grounding/earthing if you like.

PEMF Mat, or Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Mat:

It’s designed to run negative ions and far infrared waves through your body. These can range in price from $260-$800.

Grounding Sheets:

I’ve recently read about these but have not tried them or the PEMF Mat. These sheets are an option for people who want to get into grounding and earthing, but don’t have much time or want to do it passively.

Candles/Incense:

There are many different scents for both of these items that you can use while grounding. It’s just a matter of personal preference. Or you can use a “grounding” candle. These may be topped with birch bark, chamonmile, oat tops and jasper. The different scents help to connect you with the earth’s energy.

Crystals:

There are many different crystals that can be used when you are grounding. For instance, Tiger’s Eye will help center and calm you, while smoky quartz clears negative energy. When you are purchasing crystals, see what you are drawn to in the store and then see what that stone/crystal will do and choose what seems to fit you. For more information on crystals, see my post on them.

WHEN TO GROUND

Grounding or earthing can be done anytime, but if you begin to feel anxious or worried, then it’s definitely time. But truly, you shouldn’t wait until these negative type feelings start.

If you do the grounding, earthing or meditating on a regular basis, the anxious feelings shouldn’t come up as much. The minute you feel disconnected to yourself or your surroundings is when you should ground.

The more you ground yourself, the easier it gets to bring your mindset around to where you want it to be and able to focus once again.

It gets easier to disengage from your current anxious mindset and bring around your focus to be mindful of your surroundings and have your thoughts running down a better path. It gets easier to switch your mindset.