What is grounding, anyway? Getting and staying grounded is becoming increasingly important for mental, physical and emotional health… and can be difficult to achieve in these ever-crazier times. Verne Maree thinks that walking barefoot on Mother Earth is a good place to start.

My nonagenerian friend Peter Eaton (96) said to me the other day: “When I get on to the beach I’m a new person!” Though he was country born and country raised, he declared he wouldn’t dream of leaving Burns Beach now. (Click here for my recent post about longevity in general and him in particular.)

It’s not just Peter who feels this way. Another of my beach friends, 60-something Tony, told me that his plans to retire and travel the globe had been scuppered by worldwide COVID-19 and sunk by WA Premier Marc McGowan’s (a nasty little man) bringing the portcullis down on the state of WA.

“It’s this daily walk that’s been keeping me sane for the past two years,” Tony revealed.

That’s how I feel, too. I reckon walking that particular shoreline is a big part of what’s kept me sane and grounded since Roy and I arrived here in February 2020 for a short visit – and then found ourselves locked down for the foreseeable future.

In fact, these beach walks and sea swims might be two of my most effective bio-hacks. (Read here for a definition of biohacking.) How much is due to simply being in nature? How much of it is down to fresh air and sunshine? Or, could it possibly be the beneficial effects of grounding, also called earthing?

What is grounding?

In psychology, grounding tools are mindfulness-based techniques used to overcome feelings of distraction or overwhelm, generally by anchoring the individual in the present, and especially useful for PTSD – see here for more, and there’s plenty of this stuff on the internet.

What I’m talking about is physical grounding, also known as earthing.

“In short, earthing or grounding is putting the body in direct and uninterrupted contact with the earth. This means that skin needs to touch soil, sand, water or a conductive surface that is in contact with the earth.” Wellnessmama.com

When I first came across the concept a few years ago – probably on holistic health site mercola.com – also see here – it instinctively appealed to me: the idea that walking barefoot on the earth is good for you. I knew how happy and energised I’d always felt after a walk on the beach.

It stems from the idea that living in modern cities and wearing rubber- or plastic-soled shoes, we humans no longer have the kind of direct contact with the earth that we had when we walked barefoot or in shoes made of animal hide.

According to physicist/engineer Gaeten Chevalier and others, we are bioelectrical beings living on an electrical planet. All of our cells transmit multiple frequencies that run, for example, our heart, immune system, muscles and nervous system. We need earthing just like we need air and water.

The Earth is like a giant battery that contains a subtle electric charge, they explain… “a special kind of energy in the ground”. For safety and stability, almost everything in the electrical world is connected to it, from an electric power plant to your refrigerator. That’s what “grounded” means. For humans, being grounded makes us feel centred, solid, strong, balanced, less tense and less stressed.

For more, you could read this great article on chopra.com.

How does it work?

Going barefoot allows for the transfer of free electrons from the earth into your body through the soles of your feet, generating a powerful and positive shift in the electrical state of the body and the electrodynamics of blood, restoring natural self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms.

Electrons drawn into the body from the earth are thought to neutralise damaging free radicals and so reduce disease-related chronic or acute inflammation. It’s the natural way to reduce stress, improve sleep and heal the body.

Grass – especially wet grass, sand, bare earth or even unsealed brick or concrete outdoor surfaces will do the trick. The infusion of negatively charged ions has multiple health benefits: they thin the blood, so they’re anti-inflammatory; they promote healing; and they’ve been shown to mitigate the harmful effects of radiation from the electromagnetic fields and other radiation that we’re constantly exposed to from Wi-Fi networks, computers, phones and more.

And for those who can’t get their feet on the ground, grounding mats and other devices have been developed, even shoe soles threaded with copper wire. I’ve got my eye on a pair of earthing sandals like the ones below from Earthrunners.

Here’s a link to barefoothealing.com.au which explains it all quite well, and also sells indoor grounding products – none of which I’ve tried yet, by the way.

Woo-woo?

Six years ago, I wrote an article about grounding for my regular health column in Singapore’s Expat Living magazine. Here’s a link to the excellent website – but it also has a gorgeously glossy print mag. (Shamus, our brilliant group editor, was politely sceptical about the whole idea of grounding, but fortunately found it entertaining enough to publish.)  Grounding as a concept was definitely out of left field then, and may still be on the fringe – though I personally feel positive that it’s real.

Apart from me, Joe Mercola and wellnessmama.com, possibly the world’s cutest biohacker, Ben Greenfield, is a big fan too. When he’s not sharpening his dimples, he’s podcasting and writing – I highly recommend his recent book Boundless, an impressive reference for all things health.

Being disconnected from the earth has devastating effects, Ben explains, causing our bodies to become riddled with inflammation and our native electrical state to become severely compromised. He then links to over 20 research studies on the health benefits of grounding, all using indoor grounding devices – which, of course, you can buy to biohack your health! (We all, or most of us anyway, have to earn a living.)

Negative ions

Sea waves generate “loads of negative ions”, according to this article on the work of French biologist René Quinton. In the US and in Europe, Quinton’s seawater – known as Quinton’s Plasma – has been used since the early 20^th century, most famously to help overcome malnutrition in children, and then to treat diseases such as infections, intestinal problems, obesity and arthritis.

Interestingly, Quinton realised how similar seawater is to the extracellular fluid that bathes every cell in our bodies; and he believed that the cellular environment mimics the marine environment in which life first originated. In his time, Quinton was considered as famous as Charles Darwin – but his legacy was overshadowed by the work of Louis Pasteur, father of antibiotics and vaccines… possibly mixed blessings, depending on one’s viewpoint.

Living near the water – non-negotiable

Sea air itself is laden with negative ions, according to this interesting article on why living near the sea is good for our health. As for me, I can’t imagine living inland. I remember gasping like a fish out of water when we moved from Durban to London in 2000, before realising to my vast relief that it was possible to do a day-trip to Southend, complete with fish and chips, whelks and pints of prawns.  (At the end of that year, we relocated to Singapore, blessedly an island.)

Living on the water – on a boat, say

I also read somewhere that immersion in a body of water – the sea, a river, a lake – is the most grounded we can be. Maybe even on a boat. In fact, where I’ve had my very best sleep yet is the several summers Roy and I have spent on our replica Dutch barge, Karanja (below) – first in England, on the Thames, and then on the waterways of France. (She’s currently moored in a place called St Jean de Losne, patiently awaiting our release from COVID exile.)

Part of that perfect slumber may be attributable to our fabulous mattress, which was handmade from horsehair and other good stuff by a traditional artisan in northern England. But my theory is that it’s mainly to do with sleeping in a vessel with a highly conductive steel hull that’s immersed in water.

And in case you were wondering, the John Lewis sofa in the living room (below right) converts into a Queen bed, and is reportedly comfortable too. However, anyone who has ever slept on it was full of French wine, so who knows?

After all…

… what do you have to lose by trying natural grounding techniques?

Depending where you live, though, it may not be easy to find opportunities to go barefoot. Parks can be thorny or otherwise uncomfortable underfoot, and who knows how recently those lovely green lawns were treated with toxic glyphosate-laden weedkiller?

I’m one of a lucky minority who live close to beaches that are not only beautiful but also safe to walk alone on – and I get to do that four or five mornings a week. Whatever it takes to keep you grounded, just do it!

Next up? Maybe something on magnesium, a vital nutrient that almost no one gets enough of.