When you feel like every situation you are facing is blowing you in every direction possible you need to be able to ground yourself.

Ground Yourself

Life has been dealing me blows left and right, constant challenge after challenge and I want to share with others some ways that help me cope and keep myself grounded.

This in-depth, science-backed guide on how to ground yourself to reduce anxiety, quiet your mind, reduce inflammation, and improve your sleep.

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Personal Development

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Health

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Mental Health

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Science & Nature

<ul><li>Get distracted easily </li><li>Space out </li><li>Over-think or ruminate </li><li>Engage in personal drama </li><li>Experience anxiety and perpetual worrying </li> </ul>

You are also ungrounded if you are:

<ul><li>Possessed by desire for material things </li><li>Easily deceived by yourself or others </li><li>Obsessed with your personal image </li> </ul>

Physical signs of being ungrounded include:

<ul><li>Inflammation </li><li>Chronic pain </li><li>Fatigue </li><li>Poor circulation </li> </ul>

Being ungrounded is a worldwide epidemic. This epidemic is so entrenched few of us even recognize the problem.

Being ungrounded is the root cause of a great deal of human suffering.

Although the ultimate benefits of grounding techniques will come from the experience itself, our minds often seek evidence in advance.

Research on grounding began emerging over the last 15 years. It’s still in its infancy, but the results are promising.

These studies are all encouraging, but you don’t need external scientific evidence. If you take the mindset of the scientist, you can let your body be your laboratory. Then, you can evaluate the results for yourself.

The first part of grounding is to get rooted in your physical body.

Grounding is a similar concept to centering . The Center is expansive, including your body as well as your mind, heart, and spirit.

Once you learn how to ground yourself, it’s easier to find your Center. Grounding techniques are designed to redistribute the energy from your head or mind into your body. Doing so has an almost instant calming effect.

Most of our stress and anxiety results from a disconnection from our bodies. The more rooted you are in your body, the less stress and anxiety you experience.

How to Ground Yourself: 5 Grounding Techniques

Try one of the following grounding techniques right now to observe the effects.

I don’t fully understand why this grounding exercise is so effective, but it almost always works. When you are ungrounded, place one hand over the crown your head. That’s it. If it helps, close your eyes to avoid distractions.

Time : 30 seconds to 1 minute.

I often use this technique with my clients because it’s so fast and effective. Sitting or standing, place all of your awareness on the bottom of your feet. Pay attention to any sensations.

Close your eyes and as you inhale, trace the air as it enters your nose and goes into your lungs. On the exhale, follow the air leaving your lungs and exiting your nose or mouth.

This grounding technique gets more effective with practice. The key is to observe the breath instead of forcing it with your mind. Let your body lead and your mind will follow.

Time : 1 minute to 10 minutes.

We discussed this powerful grounding technique in a previous guide to an<a href="https://scottjeffrey.com/zhan-zhuang/">ancient standing meditation </a>.

Stand with your feet parallel and at least shoulder’s width apart. Keep your head floating above your body, chin tucked, and spine straight. Rest your hands at your side or place them over your navel.

Sink all of your body’s weight and tension into your feet (without collapsing your posture), allowing it to be absorbed into the ground. To support this grounding process, imagine roots growing out the bottom of your feet, extending deep into the ground beneath you.

For a complete guide on how to correct your posture and build energy standing still, <a href="https://scottjeffrey.com/zhan-zhuang/">click here </a>.

This grounding technique has many health benefits. Cold exposure has shown to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2211456/">increase immunity </a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3266793/">reduce fat </a>, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10751106">elevate mood </a> (by triggering dopamine). If you’re not accustomed to cold showers, at the end of your hot shower, make the water warm/cool for 30 seconds.

Over the course of the next three weeks, make the water slightly cooler and stay under it for longer. By the end of the three weeks, your body will get used to the cold temperature. It’s an invigorating and grounding experience. I recommend it unless you have high blood pressure.

Time : 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

A category of grounding exercises is called “earthing.” When I read the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591203740/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ceosage08-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1591203740&linkId=e848cc6c573d853c2a2ba3a20fb2ee1d">Earthing </a> (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HBEZIU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ceosage08-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B005HBEZIU&linkId=e7b4aaf218568bbb1dc6c8cd8eaa260e">Audiobook </a>) a few years ago, I was captivated by the idea.

Earthing means connecting your physical body (skin layer) to the Earth. Every household outlet has a ground wire. (It’s the third prong; that semi-circular hole beneath the other two prongs).

In case there’s a short circuit, the ground wire provides a path for an electrical current to be absorbed into the ground. Without a ground wire, your body touching the device (electrical box, appliance, power tool, etc.) may complete the ground path. This causes a shock, if not electrocution.

From an earthing perspective, our bodies are already short-circuiting, resulting in the prevalence of physical, emotional, and mental disorders. Connecting to the Earth grounds us, re-balancing our electrical system.

The theory is that earthing allows a transfer of negatively charged electrons from the Earth’s surface into the body. These electrons neutralize positively charged free radicals that cause chronic inflammation.

An excess of free radicals damages our cell membranes and DNA, leading to cancer and other diseases. Because earthing has shown to <a href="https://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/acm.2011.0820">reduce blood viscosity </a> (thickness) and inflammation, it has the potential to support cardiovascular health.

Most of us have an overactive sympathetic nervous system (excessive emotional stress). <a href="https://heartmdinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/IMCJ10_3_p16_24chevalier.pdf">Preliminary studies </a> show that earthing has a calming and balancing effect on the nervous system.

Biophysicist James Oschman <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0443067295/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ceosage08-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0443067295&linkId=87f1e8af74d73efd2b17f9df0ff7034d">explains </a>:

The moment your foot touches the Earth, or you connect to the Earth through a wire, your physiology changes. An immediate normalization begins. And an anti-inflammatory switch is turned on. People stay inflamed because they never connect with the Earth, the source of free electrons which can neutralize the free radicals in the body that cause disease and cellular destruction. Earthing is the easiest and most profound lifestyle change anyone can make.

A <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2012/291541/">growing body of research </a> suggests that earthing helps naturally heal humans from a wide variety of ailments.

Cyclists in the Tour de France often suffer from sickness, tendonitis, and poor sleep from the extreme physical and mental stress caused by the race.

The American team experimented with earthing after their daily competition. They reported better sleep, less illness, no tendonitis, and faster recovery from illness. From my experience, the benefits of earthing go far beyond healing disease.

I believe earthing has unspoken mental and emotional benefits essential for <a href="https://scottjeffrey.com/individuation-process-jungian-psychology/">psychological development </a>and <a href="https://scottjeffrey.com/peak-performance/">peak performance </a>.

Humans are beings of energy. Electrical currents and their associated magnetic fields fill and surround the human organism.

These currents make up a web or system of interactive energy fields that govern the body’s functioning. In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688069711/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ceosage08-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0688069711&linkId=2d8996e34bfad091dfa0259841ee6598">energy medicine </a>, it’s called the human biofield.

This <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.548.2332&rep=rep1&type=pdf">subtle energy </a> is called prana  in Ayurvedic medicine and qi  in Chinese medicine. However, these ancient terms likely include other forms of energy beyond electromagnetic fields (for example, sound energy).

In these ancient Indian and Chinese traditions, the understanding is that a life force energy flows through the body (extending beyond it). Blockages and imbalances in the flow of this energy lead to illness.

Modern forms of energy therapies like Reiki operate on a similar principle.

In Chinese thought, the qi from our bodies comes from Heavenly Qi and Earth Qi.

Heavenly Qi refers to the energy of the sun and the cosmos. Earth Qi is formed from the Earth’s natural web of energy, its magnetic field, and its natural heat.

It turns out the Earth also has an energetic anatomy consistent with our own. Energy centers, energy channels, magnetic fields emanate from the Earth.

The Earth is like a massive battery that’s replenished by solar radiation, lightning, and heat from its molten core. It gets recharged every minute by 5,000 lightning strikes somewhere in the world.

While some early versions of the shoe were made of papyrus, most shoes were crafted from cowhide, bearskin, deerskin, wood, and canvas.

Enter the industrial age. The first rubber-soled shoes date back to 1876 in England. By World War II, synthetic-soled shoes were commonplace. We, as a people, haven’t recovered ever since.

If you recall from high school physics, substances called conductors allow electricity to travel through easily. Other substances called insulators  inhibit the flow of electricity.

Rubber is an insulator. The rubber-soled shoes have broken our connection to the Earth .

Health expert David Wolfe calls the common shoe “the world’s most dangerous invention.”

The authors of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591203740/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ceosage08-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1591203740&linkId=e848cc6c573d853c2a2ba3a20fb2ee1d">Earthing explain </a>:

Earthing naturally protects the body’s delicate bioelectrical circuitry against static electrical charges and interference. Most importantly, it facilitates the reception of free electrons and the stabilizing electrical signals and energy of the Earth. Earthing remedies an electrical instability and electron deficiency you never knew you had. It refills and recharges your body with something you never knew you were missing … or needed.

Taken from a modern perspective, walking barefoot on the ground might seem primitive. From an instinctual perspective, however, walking barefoot is how we are meant to travel.

How to Ground Yourself to the Earth: 4 Grounding Exercises

Grounding exercises to connect you to the Earth are straightforward: just take off your shoes and socks and get outside.

Stand on the Earth: grass, stone, sand, or dirt work best. You can stand in one place, walk, or lay down.

As in any electrical circuit, you only need one point of contact to establish a ground connection.

One foot alone on the Earth will ground you, but I’ve found that two feet on the ground provide a stronger grounding effect.

For healing, the researchers behind the Earthing movement recommend staying barefoot on the Earth for at least 20 minutes, twice a day.

But even if you can get connected to the Earth for only 10 minutes during lunch, it will serve you.

<ul><li>Avoid grass sprayed with pesticides as they will get absorbed through your feet. </li><li>Be careful in areas that may have broken glass or debris. </li><li>Avoid walking barefoot on asphalt. </li> </ul>

If you can’t be barefoot, I recommend wearing a pair of <a href="https://scottjeffrey.com/earthing-shoes/">earthing shoes </a>.

Here are four grounding techniques to help you reconnect to the Earth:

Simply walk and stay present with your environment.

My favorite way of earthing is to walk barefoot on my property and the surrounding woods. Depending on how active my mind is, it takes only a few minutes before I am more mentally calm and centered. Walking barefoot has the added benefit of massaging acupuncture points in your feet like in reflexology.

A point of particular interest is the Kidney-1 (K-1) point or “bubbling well” in the center of your foot. Walking barefoot helps stimulate this point. Be sure to use your whole foot when you walk: heel, ball, toes.

Have you ever noticed how cats and some dogs roll around on the Earth?

I’ve often wondered if they instinctually know how to discharge negative energy. Try getting dirty and rolling around on the Earth. You’ll understand why cats do it. It feels good .

Time : However long you want.

How to Ground Yourself | 9 Powerful Grounding Techniques

Ground Yourself

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