“Get yourself grounded and you can navigate even the stormiest roads in peace.”
― Steve Goodier

If you examine an electrical outlet, you will find three wires.  Hot. Neutral. Ground.  Without the ground the chance for a short or even fire is grave.  Humans are electrical beings. We need calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium to survive.  These important electrolytes carry an electrical charge and are are imperative for our body to function.  They need to be in proper balance too.

As such, it is important to ground your energy. And to do it daily.

I learned this one the hard way last fall when my sodium and potassium dropped to critical levels and I was hospitalized for two days on an IV drip under seizure and coma watch.  Balanced electrolytes are what keeps us healthy, functioning, and grounded.

If our electrolytes get out of whack neurological issues occur, including the possibility of seizures and even death.  

So basic common sense dictates that grounding, or earthing, is imperative for our survival. I short, without daily grounding and balancing our energetic electrical system required for life, humans, like an electrical outlet, have the potential to short-circuit, fry out, and burn.

What does it mean to ground your energy?

Simply put grounding is connecting the human body to the earth’s surface electrons and energy.  It is a way of stabilizing the electricity in your body by realigning your personal electrical energy to connect with the earth.  Grounding realigns us as individuals  to the rhythm of the earth and creation. It has been scientifically proven to have both spiritual and therapeutic benefits. 

We have all experienced grounding even if inadvertently.  When we walk barefoot on the sand, or in a forest, or dig in our gardens to plant spring daffodils and roses—acts connecting us skin to skin so to say to the earth—we are grounding our energy.  When we splash cold water on our faces or take a cold shower stimulating the Vagus nerve, the energy from our heads and overthinking flows to our feet.  This is grounding. Ditto for jumping into a cold lake, sea, or flowing river.

These simple acts realign our energy and connect us to our roots, our home, our mother—Earth. These simple acts are examples of grounding and realigning our electrical energy for healing and better health.

How easy is it to ground your energy?

Grounding has always been difficult for me personally. I tend to live in my head.  I overanalyze everything, tend to spend a lot of time in the ethers trying to dissect the meaning of the universe dissecting and pouring them into the characters and stories I create.

Every time I visit my massage therapist I am always told—your energy is in your headspace and the ethers; you need to ground and connect with the here and now, the simplicity—you need to ground more.

I also learned last fall the severe consequences of not being sufficiently grounded, which involved my electrolytes. This was not a fun experience to say the least. My electrical system got so out of sync I was hospitalized for two days on seizure and coma watch. This was the second of the one-two punch I had received these past few years.  The first was my stroke.

Talk about a wake-up call that things needed to change and to change ASAP. I certainly do not want that final knock-out punch.

So I started taking grounding seriously. I incorporated it into my daily routine. This was anathema for me as I was always charging full steam ahead barely taking time to catch a breath.  Do I still have issues and difficulty with grounding and staying grounded? Yes.  But I am learning. I want to share some grounding tips and tools that have helped me with the hope that it may help others.

Why is it important to ground your energy?

  1. Aids with spiritual, mental, and physical well-being.
  2. Helps with proper digestion.
  3. Is a great stress-buster.
  4. Helps with clarity and focus.
  5. Brings serenity and calm into your life.
  6. Improves circulation.
  7. It keeps you balanced and more connected to the earth and our life source.
  8. Improves mood.
  9. Provides more restful sleep.

How do you ground your energy?

  1. Connect to the earth—dig in the dirt; walk barefoot; sit and breath with a tree (link)
  2. Splash cold water on your face; take a cold shower; jump in a lake, river, or sea to activate your Vagus nerve.
  3. Take an Epsom salt bath or foot soak.  Try to soak for a minimum of ten minutes. 
  4. Access acupressure point GB21,,  which is  located on both shoulders half way between the rotator cuff and the vertebrae column. This directs your Qi/energy to flow downward.
  5. Sleep or rest with a weighted blanket.
  6. Do Tai Chi exercises such as Energy Ball and Heaven and Earth. (The first thing you do in Tai Chi is curl your tongue to the roof of your mouth and connect your base of you body to the earth by envisioning a golden cord that extends from your spine deep into the root of the earth.)
  7. Practice yoga poses such as corpse pose, tree, mountain, alternative nostril breathing, and meditation.
  8. Use essential oils—which are great additions to Epsom salt baths or foot soaks.
  9. Eat grounding foods

What foods ground your energy?

Red meat is the quickest way to ground your energy via food; but, if you are a vegetarian or vegan there are plenty of other foods to choose from. These foods include: nuts, peanut butter, squash, root vegetables, legumes, pumpkin, oats, and tumeric.   All have grounding properties.

What essential Oils ground your energy?

Always the fan of essential oils, I have incorporated them into my life for decades.  But after my stroke and subsequent electrolyte imbalance I searched for oils that could help with proper energetic balance, in particular grounding.  Top oils recommended I found and like that aid in grounding energy include: rosewood, lavender, cedarwood, frankincense, vetiver, sandalwood, and blue yarrow.

Grounding as a daily routine

Adding grounding as part of my daily routine has had an enormous impact on my life. For me personally grounding helps me stay focused on the present. I tend to spend a lot of time rehashing the past or fretting about the future. Grounding is a way I stay connected to the here and now.  It’s a way for me to just be and breathe.

I have incorporated grounding foods into my life such as peanut butter, root vegetables, squash, and legumes.  I garden as often as I can and when I do I dig into the dirt with my bare hands instead of wearing gloves. The giant pepper tree in my yard is one of my favorite grounding spots. I meditate, breathe, and just sit propped against the tree.

I tend to hold stress in my back, shoulders, and neck.  When the tension gets too great, I press my fingers on GB21 acupressure point on the back of my shoulders for a count of twenty.  Instantly I feel the pent-up pressure from the aches and pains drop from my shoulders, neck, and  back into my feet before sinking into the ground.

Does grounding work?

All of this seems to be working.  My stress levels and cortisol readings have dropped significantly so much so that even my doctor is surprised. And I didn’t need prescription drugs to do it.

I use essential oils such as cedarwood, vetiver, rosewood, and lavender daily either in my diffuser, on the pulse points on my skin, or mixed with Epsom salts in the bath. Epsom salts were miracle find for me.  They are rich in the earth-based electrolytes that my body seems to lack.  Calcium. Sodium. Potassium. Magnesium.  And I can absorb them through hydrating my skin in a soak to supplement my daily vitamins.

My Epsom salt soaks are a way of life for me now.

Before I turn down the covers and curl into bed for the night, I spritz my pillows with lavender and rosewood.   Two of my favorite scents and both with grounding properties. My sleep has improved dramatically—except for the nine-month puppy who wakes up at 5 am, but that is another story for another post and day.

Touch the Earth

My life has changed in ways I never could have imagined, and I cannot image my life now without my daily grounding practices.

So take time– even a few minutes per day– to dedicate to grounding your energy.  Include whatever grounding practices resonate with and work for you. See how it affects your life…you.  Touch the earth.  Walk it barefoot.  Dig in the dirt and plant some flowers. Walk in nature.  Lie on your back and stare at the sky.  Breathe with the trees.  Live and be well.—Alison

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