Creating Your Own Nature Rx, No Doctor Required. I’ll Walk You Through It (& Free Printable)

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Why You Need To Create A Nature Rx

 

So much of healthcare, especially in the United States, is pay-to-play — the more money you have to spend, the better your health is.  It’s actually so sickening that I left conventional medicine after my own health was suffering from the trauma of working in a system designed to maximize profits instead of maximizing health.

That’s just one of the many reasons I’m so passionate about grounding — because it puts one of the most powerful healing modalities possible right in your own hands, freely, and you really just have to be intentional about grounding in order to implement it and reap head-to-toe health benefits.

It’s a constant, freely available source of support that you can 100% count on.  Getting outside on the earth is so important to your health.  Many medical studies verify this:

Just a one half hour lunch or walk through a park every weekend significantly improves your mental health.

 

 

Even indoor plants can positively impact on your well being, so don’t discount the power of a windowsill garden or a simple house plant to support your health. 

  • An exciting study published in 2015 in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology, showed that simply adding plants to an indoor computer room not only boosted the worker’s productivity, it also significantly decreased their blood pressure.
  • Another study published in 2007 in the American Society for Horticultural Science found that workers with potted plants in close proximity to them while working took less sick leave.
  • Even just seeing a plant can significantly impact our recovery from stressful health events. A study (published in 1984 in Science) found that patients who simply had a view of plants through a window while recovering from surgery had better moods, used less pain medications, had less surgical post-op complications, and even decreased their length of stay in the hospital.

Less pain during recovery and getting to go home sooner after surgery just by looking at plants?  That’s an awesome health strategy that I wish more hospital and clinics would take into account when designing their architecture.

Add actually touching the earth — the healing practice of grounding — and you ensure exponential health benefits to being around nature.

I’ve extensively and freely shared the health benefits of grounding with you in hundreds of free healing newsletters that I have been sending out week after week for almost two decades, hoping to help improve your health.

If someone has forwarded this article to you and you would like to review some of those health benefits, here are some great articles to start with:

 

 

Consider Your Nature Dose:

 

This “dose of nature” Nature Pyramid was first developed in 2012 by professors at the University of Virginia, and it’s a great way to consider scheduling in some nature therapy to boost your health routinely.

See if you can come up with a daily way to at least view nature for a few minutes, a weekly 30 minute dose, a monthly 2 hour dose, and a yearly weekend or more in nature.

For example, your Nature Pyramid might be:

Daily (A Few Minutes):

  • Take my cup of coffee outside to watch the sunrise each morning
  • Notice the trees I pass on my morning and afternoon commute to work.
  • Get grounded by touching a signpost in my office parking lot for three deep breaths before entering the building
  • Looking up at the moon and stars for a few minutes before going up to bed

Weekly (30 Minutes):

  • A 3o min picnic lunch every Sunday at my local park
  • a 30 minute walk through my neighborhood greenway every Saturday morning
  • heading to my local dog park with my pup for a half hour every Saturday afternoon
  • laying down outside to watch clouds roll by every Sunday afternoon

Monthly (2 Hours):

  • Visiting a local natural body of water that is within a day drive
  • Taking 2 or 3 mile hike to my favorite scenic overlook
  • Playing golf one afternoon a month
  • Forest bathing for several hours at my favorite nearby state park

Annually (A Long Weekend):

Even a millisecond is enough for physiological change.  And the benefits of grounding accumulate. So ask yourself: can you do it daily, for even seconds?

To figure out how, let’s create you free printable customizable Nature Rx right now, together.

How To Create A Nature Rx:

 

 

Prescribing Nature

 

Let’s create a grounded healing plan that allows you to get connected to the earth, healing your body through grounding.  The first step to writing a nature prescription as a commitment to yourself is asking the right questions.

Consider:

  • “Where do I feel safe and comfortable, outside?” 
  • “Where do I like to spend time outdoors?”
  • “Or is there an indoor grounded space I could access?”

Is it a backyard, a neighborhood park, a favorite tree you can visit, a nearby body of water, a playground, a close patch of sidewalk, your front doorstep, a metal signpost you can touch, the cement slab in your garage or basement that you can ground through?

Then ask yourself:

  • “What activities would I like to do outside?”
  • “Are there any activities I already do outside, that I could add grounding to?“
  • “Are there any indoor activities that I can be doing outside instead?”

Pick your favorite sport, hobby, book (yes, reading smut outside counts!), any indoor activity you can take outside (which lets face it is most activities, even scrolling on your phone or using a laptop can be done outside!) napping, eating a favorite snack, people watching, daily stretching, yoga, meditation… if you are having difficulty coming up with an activity, I have a wonderful idea list for you below to help inspire you!  Read through them and pick your favorite to instantly create your new Nature Rx.

The third question is about frequency and duration.  Ask yourself:

  • “How many times a week could I do this activity, and for how many minutes?”

Each of these questions (place, activity, frequency, duration) instantly creates an easy-to-stick-with nature prescription.

One you can write for yourself.  No doctor’s visit required.

Here is a free printable Grounding Rx you can fill out and then post by your door or bathroom mirror or leave in your car to remind yourself of this Rx for your health:

FREE Printable Grounding Plan:

Click to print!

 

Need some ideas to create your Nature Rx?

 

The easiest thing to do is to find a way to ground while you do things that you already do — the things that you love and enjoy doing.

So below, I’m going to run you through a lot of ideas on how to get grounded depending on what healing goals you have, then I run you through tons of hobbies and share with you ways you can do those activities grounded!  I am going to give you 35 wonderful grounding solutions for you to consider — if you can find even ONE thing on this list that you could do daily to get grounded, you’ve just developed a powerful healing plan.

Discuss your particular health concerns with your physician and ask for their recommendations in including grounding as an integral part of your healing therapies:

30 Nature Rx Ideas For You:

 

 

1.  Stress/burn out: plan a grounded vacation

 

Feeling psychologically stressed truly impacts your body’s health over time.  As part of a larger plan to boost your resiliency that includes routine exercising, sleeping well and eating lots of fresh, unprocessed foods, taking a grounding vacation can reset your body.  Whether it is laying on a beach, swimming in a lake, napping poolside, yoga in a meadow or hiking in the mountains, taking a vacation (or a long weekend) centered around grounding daily might be one of the best ways to hit a reset button in your life. 

Almost every vacation destination has evolved to be a vacation spot because of how good it feels to be grounded, even though most people don’t realize grounding is why: beaches, lakeside resorts, camp grounds, in ground pools in hotels… it’s all grounded and it all feels amazing.  While you relax connected to the global electrical circuit of the earth, grounding is at work decreasing cortisol, decreasing whole body inflammation, and significantly boosting mood — all perfect to decrease stress levels and restore your naturally energetic, creative and optimistic inner child.

 

 

2. Digestive issues: eat meals grounded outside

 

As a physician, it’s becoming incredibly obvious that digestive issues of all kinds, from inflammatory bowel diseases to food sensitivities and food intolerances, are on the rise.  Steeply.  In addition to the food allergy testing, blood tests and bowel imaging studies that your physician may want to do as part of your work up, and in complement to the dietary changes, medications and lifestyle interventions your physician may suggest as a treatment plan, I encourage you to eat at least one meal every day grounded outside.  Grounding decreases inflammation throughout your entire body, and your gut lining is no exception.  Decreasing the inflammatory response of the gut by grounding while you are eating is a great way to allow your food to digest more easily and with less discomfort, and secondarily because grounding increases blood flow as well, your gut absorption will be enhanced too. 

So take one meal a day outside and eat it grounded, or rest your feet on an indoor organic grounding mat while you are eating inside.  Lastly, taking ten minutes to walk grounded after your meal will help boost gut peristalsis naturally, which will encourage healthy bowel movements and decrease bloating and indigestion.  You can ground your favorite walking shoes just by adding these grounding stickers to them, easy as peel, stick and go!

 

 

3. Insomnia: ground in first morning light

 

If you find you have trouble sleeping at night, one of the best things you can do is to make a daily habit out of grounding in the morning light.  Grounding to the earth directly helps re-sync your circadian rhythm to the planet via the global electrical circuit.  And as we know from the medical literature, this helps calm brain waves, deepen sleep, normalize cortisol and makes the sleep you do get (even if it is not as long as you would hope) more restorative.  Get up with the sunrise and go outside for 20 minutes of grounding during the AM hours where you live.  Do this daily and you will notice your sleep naturally improving at night. 

The best part about grounding in the morning as an adjunctive treatment for insomnia is that it works in concert with any conventional medical treatment your physician might suggest, and can complement everything from a sleep study work up, to correcting sleep apnea with a CPAP machine, to sleep-inducing supplements and medications.  If you prefer an indoor solution, you can couple an organic grounding mat with an indoor light box for a year round solution.

 

 

4. Anxiety: ground during panic attacks

 

Because grounding goes immediately to work directly stabilizing your autonomic nervous system and boosting your vagal tone, it has the power to regulate your racing heart and deepen your breathing.  So, it’s literally the perfect adjunctive support during panic attacks and heightened anxiety states. 

Along with conventional evaluation and treatment that might include therapy, medication, exercise and mind-body work, grounding is an instantly accessible healing tool that can provide immediate support during increased periods of anxiety no matter where you are or what you are doing.  If you feel a panic attack approaching, stop everything and touch the earth.  Pull over if you are driving, go outside if you are home or at work or in a crowded shop or restaurant and let the stability of the earth ease your panic and calm your anxiety with its power.

 

 

5. Depression: daily grounding is crucial

 

Grounding is a wonderfully uplifting way to balance mood, support the central nervous system, and release chronic inflammation that puts wear and tear on the body and mind. Ongoing research is revealing the full extent that inflammation plays in depression, as higher levels of blood markers of inflammation have been found to be directly correlated with a variety of depressive symptoms, including sleep difficulty, decreased energy levels, decreased motivation and increased or decreased appetite. Another study found that anti-inflammatory drugs helped to lessen depressive symptoms and resolve depressive episodes better than anti-depressants alone when added to anti-depressant therapy. Grounding is not only anti-inflammatory and stabilizing, it boosts mood and energy levels as well, and can work in conjunction with any therapy, medication or treatment for depression that your physician may suggest. 

The best approach to adding grounding to a treatment for depression is to get into a daily routine so that benefits are cumulative over time, instead of sporadic support.  So, choose hobbies that get you outside routinely: gardening is perfect, whether it is flowers or herbs or vegetables that will get you outside daily, nurturing something growing on this earth will have you grounding daily by default.  Other ideas include bird watching, nature photography, stretching or journaling outside, or simply listening to a podcast or music… headphones on and bare feet in the grass.

 

 

6. Back Pain: the earth is your physical therapist

 

Back pain is one of the most common reasons people see a doctor.  And the good news is, no matter what treatment plan your physician recommends, from imaging studies to physical therapy to surgery to medications, grounding can expedite your recovery and decrease pain from injury and inflammation in your spine.  Consider the earth your very own physical therapist, as you lay grounding directly on the earth outside.  We know that routine grounding decreases pain and decreases whole body inflammation, and that includes inflammation and pain in your ligaments and tendons. Your entire spine is conductive, the discs and ligaments and vertebral bones that make up your spine are conductive, and all of your joints and the fluid in your joints are conductive. 

Grounding spinal care can be as simple as laying on the earth outside with an ice pack or a hot water bottle held to tight areas, or you can add some gentle twists, stretches and release exercises or any physical therapy and rehabilitative exercises you’ve been instructed to do.  Make this time exponentially more powerful then stretching or doing rehab exercises indoors by adding grounding to the therapy session.   Even if all you do is go stretch on the earth outside while you wait for your pain medication to take effect, you will be supporting repair to your body’s skeletal system on a much deeper level than just treating pain with a pill.  Grounding decreases inflammation in the body over the long term, but you don’t have to wait to have back pain to begin to support your body’s longevity, but if you do already have back issues, grounding is one healing therapy you will want to add to your already established medical treatment plan.

 

 

7. Trauma: meditate grounded

 

Meditation has been medically proven repeatedly in the medical literature to reduce PTSD symptoms as well as, or better than, traditional therapeutic approaches including talk therapy and exposure therapy.  Even a super quick and easy meditation technique like mantra repetition out performed talk therapy in reducing PTSD symptoms, even hard-to-treat symptoms such as insomnia.  So, if you struggle with prolonged meditation, simply taking a few minutes to repeat a positive word or phrase with mindfulness can reap huge benefits in trauma recovery. 

And to get exponential benefits, combine mantra and meditation with grounding outside.  It can be as simple as sitting outside on the earth and focusing on your breath.  Connecting to our global electrical circuit through grounding deepens sleep, decreases stress hormones and boosts vagal tone, all of which can provide incredible relief and boost resiliency in the face of trauma.

 

 

8. Rehabilitation/joint issues: ground in water

 

Take weight off of your area of injury to allow it to recover by removing the force of gravity from your joints, allowing healing that can be more gentle while at the same time be more effective.  Water is perfectly suited to helping you heal not just because it buffers the force of gravity from your skeletal system but because almost all pools and certainly all natural bodies of water are grounded. 

In ground pools that are made from concrete or cement are all grounded, so most pools in hotels and gyms and neighborhoods and private back yards, as long as they are not lined with plastic or made from plastic, provide therapeutic grounding support to your body while you work on building strength, recovering mobility and increasing range of motion in the water.  We know that grounding not only decreases inflammation and pain, but during exertion it decreases damage done to muscles and mitigates how much soreness you experience later.  Which means you can participate more fully in your water-based recovery plan, without worrying about being as sore or in pain later.  This will allow you to be more invested in your healing sessions and see results faster, all while the grounded water is allowing supported movement and decreases the gravitational load on your joints.

 

 

9. Heart Disease: exercise grounded

 

The link between exercise and heart health has long been studied, so most physicians will prescribe some sort of exercise plan for their patients with cardiovascular risk factors.  If you are in this group, be sure to add a grounded form of exercise to your routine, for a free way to upgrade the effectiveness of your healing plan.  In addition to any therapies, interventions and/or medications your cardiologist recommends, grounding outside on the earth can work synergistically to help naturally increase circulation and blood flow, decrease blood viscosity, increase heart rate variability, and reduce soreness after exercise.  Not only will this benefit your entire cardiovascular system, all of your bodily organs will then benefit from the improved blood flow as well, in addition to your heart. 

Walking grounded, grounding through your hands while outdoors exercising (for example, while playing golf or hiking) or doing fun barefooted exercises outside such as tai chi, yoga, dance or even lifting weights (and if you keep your weights on a cement floor in your garage or basement, it’s very likely to be grounded)!   If you are on blood thinners, be sure to tell your physician you are grounding and have your physician follow your lab tests closely.  As your blood naturally moves more freely with daily time spent grounded, your personal physician may need to guide a medication adjustment and monitor your results.

 

 

10. Osteoporosis: grounded yoga

 

The opposite of exercising in water to remove the wear and tear of gravity on your joints, to build bone density you actually want to have resistance or weight training to make your bones strong.  Simply using gravity is a wonderful way to maintain strong bones for a lifetime and combining this with the healing power of grounding will reduce bone metabolism to help protect your bones in an additional way. 

Any poses that allow you to place weight on your hands such as tabletop, plank, chaturanga, reverse tabletop and downward facing dog, plus inversions such as forward fold, crow pose, head and hand and shoulder stands, all help keep your bones strong and are an invaluable daily habit to get into.  Doing it grounded outside not only adds the additional element of conductive health to your bone support, but the daylight you get while outside boosts your Vitamin D levels naturally, which are crucial for bone integrity. 

Use gravity with yoga to stimulate strong bones, protect the metabolism of your bones with grounding, and boost Vitamin D levels outdoors all in one 20 minute yoga session.  Whether you prefer yoga outside or indoors, this eco-ethcially hand crafted organic grounding yoga mat works both ways.

 

 

11. Cancer Recovery: walk a dog grounded 

 

There have been several incredibly positive studies showing that walking is one of the best things you can do to recover from, and prevent remission in, cancer treatment.  Walking was shown in a large medical study to significantly improves sleep in cancer patients (no matter which type or stage of cancer they had) and another study showed that walking improved outcome, decreased mortality rates, and predicted positive outcome in cancer recovery.  Those results were so impressive that some physicians even started prescribing adopting and walking a dog daily as a crucial part of a cancer care plan. 

Walking helps reverse sleep impairment during cancer treatment, supports better sleep during recovery, and is so good at improving outcomes that it could be considered front line therapy alongside conventional medical treatment.  Add grounding on to this and compound these fantastic results with decreased pain, decreased inflammation, deeper and more restorative sleep at night, and improved energy and mood as well.  Walk your dog and petting him or her often (which allows you to ground through your pet) or remove your shoes and walk barefoot with your pet daily.

 

 

12.  Grounded Meditation

 

Like meditation?  You can easily be grounded for every second that you meditate and not only will this add boosting conductive health to your daily routine, it will actually make meditation easier.

That’s because both grounding and meditation reduce markers of brain stress, boost calm and centered alpha brain waves, and put the brain into a healing state, but doing them together is synergistic — you get more benefits doing them together than you do with either alone. I talk more about overlapping grounding and meditation in this TikTok here.

You can simply ground outside with a fingertip or foot touching the earth while you meditate, or if you prefer meditating indoors, you can sit on my organic grounding mat: Organic Grounding Mat. In fact, if you want to see me laying on my indoor organic grounding mat and have me walk you through a 3 breath, super easy mantra mediation that you can do any time, any where, watch this TikTok here. 

 

13. Grounding With Your Dog

 

Umm is there any better hobby than spending time with your pet?  I personally do not think so, and the medical literature has my back on this one — hop over here to read my article on why pets boost your lifespan.  

So that said, next time you are tossing a ball or going on a walk or just snuggling with your fur baby, know that like all living things (plants, animals, and other humans included!) you can ground right through your pet, especially by petting or kissing an area with less dense fur, like their snout, ears or belly. Watch me ground through my favorite soul-dog, long since passed away but always in my heart, in this TikTok here.

And in this TikTok here.

You can also put a grounding shoe sticker on your shoes so you are grounded when you take your pup on that walk.

 

 

14. Walking, Running or Jogging… Grounded

 

If you are a runner or jogger, and you are excited for a spring and summer full of fresh air runs, I’d highly recommend putting a shoe sticker on your favorite pair of running or walking shoes and add the health benefits of grounding to your body the entire time.  Being grounded will actually make that run easier too, as grounding boosts oxygenation in the blood, supports healthy cardiac function, and as we talked about in #2 above, protects your muscles and joints from wear and tear as well.

The sticker is fully conductive and runs the grounding energy from the earth beneath you up and around your shoe and into the sole of your shoe where your feet are. By touching the sticker, you bypass the rubber sole entirely and are basically standing barefoot on the ground, but with the benefit of your feet protected by shoes or your foot alignment supported by your orthotic inserts, no bare feet required.  Find them here: Grounding Shoe Stickers

 

15. Grounded Hiking

 

Hiking, especially in the spring as the world is waking up around you, has to be one of the most lovely hobbies there is.  If you are going to be spending this time exploring the earth outside, you absolutely should be adding the health benefits of grounding to the entire excursion.   For most of us — myself included — I don’t want to hike barefoot.  I prefer to keep my shoes on and ground directly through my hands while using a solid wood, artisan hand crafted walking stick.

Of, for those who travel and need a stick that can break down to easily slip in a backpack, a suitcase, under your car seat for long car drives or even stow on a carry on bag, these are the travel grounding hiking sticks you want.

 

16. Working Out, Then Grounding

 

We’ve mentioned how helpful grounding is in supporting the musculoskeletal system several times now, so it’s probably obvious now that if you are working out in any capacity, I truly feel you should be grounded.  If you have a gym or weights set up in your basement or garage, which is where I have mine, then you are in luck — standing barefoot on a cement slab found in many basements or on a concrete garage floor means you are fully grounded from head to toe!

If not, then I highly recommend that every time you stop to drink some water, you head outside and ground to the earth while you hydrate.  It’s an easy reminder and even getting just a few minutes of grounding while you drink that water will be enough to release muscle tension, reduce inflammation and boost your cardiac recovery.  At least take 5 minutes on the way into the gym and 5 minutes on your way out of the gym to get grounded — drink a bottle of water and touch a metal signpost, hold onto a leaf on a tree, or sit on the curb and rest your hand on the sidewalk on your way in and out of your workout facility and know that you just added a solid 10 minutes of grounding into your day.  

Watch this TikTok to understand why even a few seconds of grounding makes a difference.  I’ve seen major medical improvements in my patients — with cumulative health benefits — even when they were not able to ground for a full 30 minutes each day.  So never skip a chance to get grounded even if it’s just for a few minutes.

 

17. Reading Grounded

 

I am so proud of you if reading is one of your hobbies, I feel that this is one of the most overlooked activities that can add years of longevity to your brain, your critical thinking skills and boost your neuronal plasticity for a lifetime, even protecting against cognitive decline.  In today’s passive consumption of media, actively reading is something I admire deeply and take the time to do myself, no matter how busy I am.

The best is if you can take a book outside.  In fact, I encourage you to have a separate physical book that you keep in your car or in your home as your “outside book” — reading one chapter outside every day (or as often as you can) and by the time you are done your book, you just added many of hours of healing grounding to your life.

You can lay on any blanket outside and just let one toe or fingertip touch the earth to be grounded, or you can sit at a park bench and slip your shoe off to be grounded while you read. If you prefer reading indoors, snuggled up on your sofa, throw this lovely, soft, super lightweight organic throw across your lap and ground inside.  You should probably have one of these on your sofa at all times regardless, so whether you are reading, or watching TV, or taking a rest… you can be grounded on your favorite sofa or chair every single day!

 

18. Being Intimate, Grounded Of Course!

 

Is having playtime with your partner one of your favorite hobbies?  Mine too.  If you’ve never combined grounding with intimacy before, you are in for a treat. Thanks to boosted blood flow, boosted mental focus, more deeply relaxed muscles and boosted nerve function, kissing and connected while grounded adds a deeper level of intimacy to your partnership.  Watch this TikTok here on how grounding boosts sexual health.  

Meanwhile, if you have kissed outside or shared a hug while grounding to the earth, you already know how it heightens your connection, and you might want to take this grounding support into the bedroom.  You can ground the surface of your bed with an organic grounding topper made from organic cotton and stainless steel fibers only (no  nasty plastic “leatherette” or synthetic polyester, which I do not recommend for long term skin contact.) Find that right here: Organic Grounding Bed Topper

 

19. Fishing

 

If you like spending time outside on a lake, stream, river or ocean, you are right next to one of the easiest, most sure-fire ways to get grounded of all time: through water.  And it only takes one fingertip touching the water to ground you — you don’ have to be submerged in it and you don’t have to be standing on the bottom of the body of water — the very top surface of water is just as grounded as the core of the earth itself…

…so if you are on a dock and can dangle your feet in the water while you are casting a line, or if you are out on a boat and can trail one hand into the water while waiting on a bite, you will be easily grounded from head to toe.  More on grounding through water in #18 below!

 

20. Road Trip

 

So I get asked all the time if there is a way to get grounded while in a car.  There are grounding chains and straps that drag along the ground from a car, but sadly those products that claim to ground you in a car are a scam. They can ground you in the sense that your body can discharge static electricity to the frame of the car, but in no way is this actually the earth’s energy connecting to you. For one thing, the rubber tires are keeping the entire car ungrounded, similar to wearing a plastic soled shoe keeping our body up off the ground, ungrounded. Second, the grounding chains/straps that drag along the back of the car touching the road are not grounding the car because even the road is not grounded — the plastic additives in the asphalt blocks it. They add this to prolong the life of the road but it coats the road and makes it ungrounded.

Sidewalks and cement and concrete are grounded, but the vast majority of the roadways are not. So unless you were always driving on dirt roads or sidewalks, you just are not going to be grounded even with something dragging along behind your car. Lastly I have tested these chains and even if you are driving on a grounded surface like grass there is not enough pressure from the conductive strip or chain to ensure contact adequate for grounding. I spent a lot of time on this because I was hoping that something similar could work on a wheelchair to ground metal wheelchair frames but I found that unless I literally stepped on the chain or strap to push it into the earth, it was not enough contact pressure to adequately ground it. So sadly even if a car is driving on grass I really don’t think that the car is grounded even with a conductive strap or chain touching the grass.

The best option?  Stopping frequently at rest areas to have a picnic lunch, touch a metal signpost, or hold a leaf on a tree to get grounded as you break up your drive.  Or, keep a travel grounding walking stick in your car and go on a little walk to get grounded through your walking stick — I recommend at least a 5 minute grounded walk for every 60 minutes of driving, to reduce stress and boost circulation while you travel!

 

21. Bird Watching

 

Birding is a phenomenal hobby… did you know that bird diversity is as important to life satisfaction as an income is?  One study found that not only is happiness correlated with local bird diversity, but a 10% boost in bird diversity actually increases happiness to a similar magnitude as a 10% boost in income does!  Watch this TikTok where I tell you about that medical study.

And while you are out and about identifying birds, it’s so easy to get grounded.  Rest a fingertip on a leaf of a tree, bush, flower, blade of grass, even on a weed and your entire body will be grounded from head to toe.  Ahhh….

 

22. Listening To Music, Grounded

 

If music is your thing, download a playlist, put your phone on airplane mode and enjoy your favorite tunes outside. Laying down on a picnic blanket, resting on a park bench with feet on the earth or cement below, or taking a stroll with a grounding hiking stick or grounding shoe sticker on your shoes will all allow you to combine your love of music with grounding.

Don’t forget that many more outdoor surfaces are grounded than you think — this includes brick, pavers, rock and more.  In fact, watch me walk through a city and show you all the ways I can be outside grounded even in the most urban environment with just the touch of a fingertip — I show you how in this TikTok.  Then when I go inside, I just wash my hands (which gives me a few extra minutes of grounding, win-win!)

 

23. Dancing Grounded

 

Love to dance?  Me too!  Next time you are in the mood to dance, kick off your shoes and do it outside on the earth.  You’ll be combining the healing benefits of movement and expression with the conductive support of grounding your entire body.  Even just one or two songs will be enough for you to feel the health benefits from being grounded while you dance.

As a challenge — the next time there is a spring shower (and no lightening!) go outside and dance in the rain.  When is the last time you danced outside as raindrops fell all over you?  For most of us, that was probably childhood.  But not only is this such a freeing feeling, but the moisture from water actually ensures you are grounded even more instantly!  Go ahead and stomp through some puddles, skip through the rain, and twirl in the rain.  You will feel so very alive!  If you don’t want to get wet but, go outside and dance under the next full moon.  It’s glorious!!!!

 

24. Stargazing

 

If I have gone an entire day without grounding, one of my favorite back-up ways to ensure I get at least a minute or two of grounding in a day is to go outside on my way up to bed and look at the moon and stars.  It’s so easy to stargaze grounded, because all it takes is to stand on a sidewalk, or stay bundled up and hold onto a leaf on a tree (even a pine needle in the winter will ground you!) as I look up and remember how magnificent it all is, and how all of my “big” problems are really small.

Spinning on a rock that is spiraling through space and remembering the vastness of it all puts everything back into perspective, while grounding allows my muscles to relax, my mind to shift out of stress mode and into rest mode, and preps my body for a good night of sleep ahead.  Watch this TikTok to learn more about grounding in the moonlight and give it a try before you go to bed tonight. 

 

25. Cycling (or Tennis or Pickleball)

 

Like we talked about in the road trip idea above, it’s not possible to truly ground a vehicle to the earth while it is moving… and that includes your bike.  However, many cyclists I know use grounding both before and after their exertions to help decreases muscle soreness and muscle tension, protect joints and boost stamina… so consider stretching directly on the earth before or after your ride to support your body’s resiliency.

Another great way to combine grounding with your favorite exercise, like Pickleball?  Apply a grounding ice pack to soothe any injuries and decrease inflammation and swelling after you exercise.  If you enjoy an ice bath to help recover after exertion (or if you hate it and you want something infinitely you will love combining grounding with ice as well… find your grounding ice pack here.  

 

26. Swimming

 

Not only is swimming one of the most ideal ways to exercise — built in resistance training with excellent cardio. plus decreased strain on the joints — but every way of swimming you can possible think of will ground you the entire time as well!  Pools, even indoor pools, even rooftop pools, plus all natural bodies of water you can swim in are all grounded.

Watch this TikTok on how pools and hot tubs will ground you!     I get so many skeptics about this one that I even filmed a second TikTok where I took my grounding test meter out to my own hot tub and showed you with the tester that the water is indeed grounded, even in my plastic hot tub!  Watch that here. 

And then I took that ground test meter and went inside to show you how you are grounded through water in other ways too… when washing hands, doing dishes, and even taking a bath.  Watch that TikTok right here. 

 

27. Journalling

 

If you like to write in journal daily, do it outside.  If you like to set intentions, or are working on a manuscript, or filling out a dream journal — try to do all of your writing outside.  I try my hardest to write my blog posts and my MaryJane Farm Magazine column outside grounded, and it always helps me think more clearly.    In fact, studies show that not only is the natural electrical output of the earth cohesive with the cerebral cortex of our brain, it’s the most cohesive with the part of our brain that provides meaning and context to our lives.  In short, time spent on the earth boost our mental clarity… hear me talk more about these studies in this TikTok here. 

It makes sense that the human brain just may work better when it is grounded… after all, the near seven million years that the human brain has been evolving and increasing in intellectual capacity have all been with the brain being bathed in the electrical field that the earth produces. Have you ever been mulling over a big life decision, feeling overwhelmed or confused, and then spent time in nature and found a solution, a deeper insight, or a sudden idea that provided clarity.  Many studies have shown that by connecting with the earth, we shift the brain from high strung beta waves to calming alpha wave patterns, decrease inflammation, decrease mental stress, improve mood, and even boost cognition, all naturally.  In fact, I wrote a medical review article on these studies that you can read right here:

The effects of grounding the human brain start right away, with measurable changes in brain wave activity in less than one second.  So the next time you need a little boost in brain function, or the next time you want to sit down to write… try heading outside to get grounded.

 

28. Creative Arts: Sewing, Painting, Drawing, etc…

 

Anything creative or expressive can be taken up to new levels when they are done grounded — that’s why plein air painting is so cool!  Drawing, sketching, photography, embroidery, poetry and more can all be done outside, grounded.

So while medical studies show you — through double blinded placebo based studies — concrete evidence that grounding is a healing state for the human body, I want you to know that it’s not just your physical body that is being supported. It’s your mind frame, your soul energy, your Spirit.  You feel better.  You feel deeply supported.  You feel creative.  You feel inspired.  You feel stronger.  You feel more motivated.  You feel more loving.  You feel more loved.

Nothing quite allows you to become the pure positive vessel of Well Being the way grounding does.  You become the perfect balance of a physical body that is supported and healthy while being an open vessel holding the most vibrant state of your soul’s energy flowing through your body and resonating out from your core.

When you are in that specific union — of your unique physical body that nobody else has, combined with your unique soul energy that nobody else has, coming together and being totally supported by the healing energy flow of the earth… that is your optimal state of Well Being.

So consider taking your creative hobby outside next time your creativity strikes.  Or consider painting, sewing, cooking, etc… while standing or resting your feet on an organic grounding mat indoors (as discussed in #1, above) and see how it boosts your creative output. Find your organic grounding mat here: Organic Grounding Mat

 

29.  Watching Movies While Grounding

 

Is your favorite hobby in the world watching a movie?  What is not to love — the popcorn, the excitement, the soundtrack, the characters, the twists and turns, the romance, the surprises, even debating with your friends and loved ones what you liked and disliked about the film afterwards.

If you are watching that movie at home, consider doing it grounded.  Any time you are sitting for more than an hour, it doesn’t makes sense for that sedentary time to not be a time of healing, a time spent grounded.  Ideally we are moving our bodies often, frequently, and throughout the day.  But when we are not, the advantage to that is we can have prolonged time making contact with a grounded surface.  Of course if you are watching the movie on a device you can take outside — a laptop or tablet or phone — by all means be grounded directly to the earth!

But even indoors, having an organic grounding throw on your sofa (as we talked about in #7 above) turns the time you spend mentally enthralled in a movie a healing time physically for your body as well.  A movie session might as well be a grounding session too!  That becomes super easy when you have a grounding tool on your sofa always waiting for you.  Find your organic throw blanket right here.  

In fact, even if you spend the entire day indoors, you can absolutely still treat your body to grounding.  Watch this TikTok where I show you all the ways I ground in my home throughout the day.  

 

30.  Golf

 

Any outdoor hobby can be an opportunity to get grounded, like golf!  All it takes is adding a grounding shoe sticker to your golf shoes (like we talked about in #4, above) and the entire golf course becomes your grounding therapy path.  Thanks to the boost in concentration and clarity, the decrease in muscle tension (helpful when a you shank a shot!) and the protection it provides to your joints, you just might find your game improves when you play it grounded.

But even if not, hey at least when you don’t get that birdie you were gunning for, your health was boosted the entire time you played.  If that’s not a good excuse to take an afternoon off of work and hit the links, I don’t know what is.  Consider it like physical therapy or going to the dentist — a healing session that your body needs.  The best part about grounding while playing golf is that all of it — every bit of the course — is grounded.  The fairway, the sand traps (not that you are ever standing in them, ahem) and the water — it’s all waiting to ground you.  It’d be a shame not to get grounded while spending a few hours trying to beat your personal best!

Find your grounding shoes stickers here. 

 

 

By now, I hope you can see how integral a grounding practice can be for your health no matter what your health care treatments are, and that’s why I routinely prescribe it for my patients as a crucial part of their healing plan.

Whatever therapeutic and healing daily practices you have that support your health, ask yourself if you can possibly do them outside, so that you can get the double benefit of supportive relief from the activity as well as from time spent connected to our global electrical circuit. 

So many therapies are even more powerful when done outside.  For example, if your physical therapist has a set of stretches for you to do daily at home, do them outside.  If your psychologist wants you to do journal writing daily, do it outside.  If your massage therapist suggests hydrating more, take your glass of water and drink it outside.  If your physician wants you to get more exercise, swim or yoga or walk grounded outside.  If your nutritionist wants you on a specific diet plan, eat it outside.  If your spiritual director suggests you meditate daily, do it outside.  If your friend wants to come over and spend time with you, hang out outside.  If your partner wants time with you, go on a walk holding hands together outside.   If your kids want to play with you, head outside!   If your boss has catch up work for you to do on your laptop at night, take it outside.

Even though we have discussed numerous scientific studies that support the practice of grounding, the point isn’t just to optimize your cardiovascular health, or boost your metabolic health, or get better sleep.  The whole reason we want to optimize those things is so that you can feel vibrant and alive and enjoy your life more. And ultimately that’s what grounding does. I’ve seen it over and over again, I’ve experienced it personally in my own life, and I encourage you to connect to our planet and get grounded daily so that you can experience it too.  The global electrical circuit is just outside, waiting for you.

Luckily we also have lots and lots of indoor options so that we can remain connected while we work indoors or recover and heal indoors or sleep indoors at night. So pick a way to ground either outside or inside that you will really stick with, fill out the free printable Nature Rx Worksheet, and watch your health skyrocket!

 

FREE Printable Grounding Plan:

Click to print!

 

And if someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like to have that article come directly to you, you can sign up for my newsletter right here.  I’d love to help you enjoy healing!

 

xoxox,

Laura Koniver MD

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Intuition Physician
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