This blog post is the first in a four part series on grounding:
- Grounding 101: Exactly How Grounding Works
- Grounding 102: The Medical Research Confirming Head To Toe Benefits
- Grounding 103: What Dirty Electricity Is & How To Fix It
- Grounding 104: Grounding For Your Specific Healing Goals
- Grounding 105: The Minimum Time You Need To Ground For Sustained Results
As the leading medical authority in the healing field of grounding, you’ve come to the right place to understand more than even your own physician does about the healing practices of grounding!!!
Let’s start with the basics, of how it works, why we know it works, how to do it, and tons of specific techniques you won’t hear from anyone else! Not only do I know the entire body of medical evidence on grounding, but as a physician I also understand electrosensitivity and how the body is affected by both natural and artifical electrical fields, and I can help you grounding in the most healing effective way possible.
If someone has forwarded you this free healing article and you want to get the rest of the series into your own inbox, sign up for my weekly uplifting, healing newsletter right here:
Today, we start with Grounding 101: Exactly How Grounding Works!
Let me give you the scoop!
How Grounding Works
The earth, and all living things on the earth — both plants and animals — including the 8.7 million species of life, are part of an all natural, global electrical circuit. This energy grid is comprised of DC energy, the natural energy of the entire universe, which is very different from our typical idea of energy that is a manmade AC current.
Instead, the natural world utilizes a direct current (DC) that syncs all conductive elements of the earth and life on earth together into one flowing circuit of energy.
Our bodies are entirely conductive — every cell, every cell membrane, the cytoplasm of each cell, the cytoskeleton of each cell, every fluid in the body (including blood, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, plasma and more), every tissue, and every organ system — the entirety of our anatomy is conductive. When we touch the earth in any way, we become a part of this global electrical circuit through the nature of our innate conductivity.
In fact, it is only recently that we have ever lived disconnected from this natural global circuit, as it is only recently that we wear plastic shoes, live and work and learn and shop and eat in insulated indoor dwellings, even riding up off the earth in rubber tired vehicles and flying up away from the surface of the earth in aircrafts. Because we no longer connect all day long to the earth’s natural energy circuit, we must intentionally ground our body to it in order to become a part of this energy flow, a practice known as grounding.
What we know about this global electrical grid so far — first described by Charles Wilson in 1920 is that there is a constant extremely low frequency DC energy pulse from the earth, named the Schumann Resonance.
The Schumann Resonance can be thought of as the dial tone of our earth, albeit in a frequency too low to hear. It is a constant DC energy source that flows over the surface of the earth and interconnects all conductive surfaces of the earth as well as any living plant or animal that touches it.
There is also a 24 hour rhythmic cycle, first described in experiments as early as 1915, called the Carnegie Curve.
This is a DC cycle that rises and falls in a 24 hour pattern, becoming highest at 7 pm UT and lowest at 3 am UT. Not only is the Carnegie Curve cyclical daily but it falls into an elliptical pattern annually as well, becoming lowest seasonally at the spring and fall equinox, and highest at the summer and winter solstice.
Although grounding is a relatively ‘new’ health practice described by electrician Clint Ober in 2010, living organisms have been benefitting from being a part of the earth’s global electrical circuit since the beginning of life itself.
It’s a healing practice that you can quite literally feel for yourself.
Have you noticed that activities that require you to touch the earth with your skin are more restorative than activities that don’t? Swimming in the ocean, walking barefoot on the beach, running hands through the soil while planting a garden… these are the times you plug into the earth’s global electrical circuit and allow your body to benefit from grounding.
Grounding To The Global Electrical Grid Yields Health Benefits
25 years of medical research now backs this up. Researchers have exhaustively looked at the human body while it is connected to the earth, and found that the body goes into a deeply healing state while grounded.
- We benefit from grounding with a boosted heart rate variability (HRV), increased blood perfusion of our tissues, and blood that flows more easily, with decreased viscosity.
- Our immune system gets a boost, muscles are more supported during exertion and are less sore afterwards.
- Our brain gets much needed support immediately… EEG studies of brain activity show that grounding instantaneously shifts our brain wave patterns and reduces ambient stress levels along with supporting deeper, more restorative sleep at night and improving our body’s autonomic function too.
- Grounding even supports our metabolic function as a whole, boosting our basal metabolic rate.
- Grounding helps to resolves the cascade of inflammation and auto-immune signaling in hormonal pathways that may ultimately lead to thyroid hormone imbalances, cortisol or sex hormone imbalances, all which can lead to issues such as adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, insomnia and more.
Grounding exerts full body benefits, as every single organ system gets a boost of blood flow and oxygen because grounding positively impacts our cardiovascular function, improving circulation. Over time, hormones normalize, cortisol drops, blood sugar stabilizes, sleep deepens, inflammation decreases, and the human body heals.
When plants are grounded to our global electrical circuit, growing directly up out of the earth, they grow taller, bloom more, and the blossoms last longer than plants that are growing disconnected from the earth in ungrounded containers.
When humans are grounded, we feel more vibrant and healthy and energetic than we do when we are ungrounded. While the plant world expresses grounded support by vibrant growth, we express grounded support by vibrant health!
When you disconnect from the earth, by putting on shoes, going inside your home, or driving in your car, you disconnect from the earth’s global electrical circuit. You have become unplugged from the natural flow of DC energy in this system and are operating instead as a closed loop.
All in all, a closed loop system is a finite system that is destined to decline. Touch the earth. As you plug back into the global electrical circuit, you become an open flowing part of this DC energy circuit, not a closed container, and you feel yourself come back into balance. You are a conductive avenue for the expression and flow of life!
Grounding As A Simple Daily Practice
So, knowing this, how can we intentionally utilize grounding as a health practice?
Understanding the benefits of grounding the human body can give us different ideas in approaching grounding for our own healing.
Let’s start with what surfaces can ground you outside by the simple touch of one fingertip. Yep, fingertip! Typically when you hear folks recommend grounding, you only hear about walking barefoot on green grass.
That doesn’t help in winter, when the winter grass is either non-existent, crunchy and dried out, or covered in mud or snow. Not to mention even if I could find living grass, I really don’t want to go barefoot on it when the temperatures are cold.
In fact, even in the summer, grass is not my favorite surface to get grounded on. Grass in the summer can be sprayed with chemicals, have fire ants, have dog poop, and sometimes just isn’t the best solution when you want to get grounded.
Most of the time I prefer to ground through my hands, and that goes year round. So thankfully there are lots of solutions, like trees and rocks and bushes and metal signposts and metal railings that can all ground you while you walk or stand outside.
Not that there is anything wrong with grass. It’s just that most of us (myself included) are not lucky enough to have a lovely backyard full of grass… and who knows what is sprayed on the grass in public parks… so more often than not it is a sidewalk or a rock that will tempt me to reach out and touch it more than grass will.
So here you go…
15 Alternative Grounded Surfaces Waiting For You Outside:
1. Gravel.
Yep, that gravel road, that gravel parking lot, that pea gravel patio… it’ll all ground you, particularly if it is damp.
2. Ferns.
I seem to be able to find these even when most other smaller plants have gone dormant or died in the winter… long after the grass is brown, I usually can find a fern on my winter walks. And yep, any rooted living thing, ferns included, growing out of the ground will ground you.
3. Moss.
Even moss growing on a tree, even moss growing on thick bark (as I show in the video here) will get you grounded and feels oh-so-good. So if you are trying to ground through a tree that has a lot of thick bark on it, see if you can find moss growing on it to touch instead.
4. Slate.
Slate walkways are my favorite thing to walk barefoot on, I have a slate area by my front door that I ground on and I love it so much… and yes you are grounded the entire time you stand or walk on one.
5. Your Pet
If you have a pet that goes outside with you, then every time you are near them you have an easy, warm, accessible way of getting grounded! As I talk about in this blog post, touching your pet will ground you as long as they are on the earth outside.
If you want to see it for yourself, I show you in this TikTok here:
@laurakonivermd Grounding through your pet #grounding #earthing #pethealth #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician
6. Sidewalk.
The sidewalks around your home, the shopping mall, your office, that restaurant you are eating lunch in… if the sidewalk is directly on the earth then they are all grounded and waiting to support your health, even in the most urban of environments!
I give you tons more solutions on grounding in the middle of a city — far beyond just sidewalks — in my TikTok here:
@laurakonivermd There is something that can ground you on every city block #grounding #earthing #groundingtechique #holistichealth #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician #conductivehealth #urbanlandscape #citylife
7. Cement.
This is another great way to ground directly to the earth: do you have a cement floor on your basement?
Or your garage?
Or is your driveway cement?
Or your patio?
Is the basement of your office building?
Or your parking garage?
It’s all powerfully grounded!
8. Pavers.
Similar to slate and cement and sidewalks mentioned above, pavers will ground you too. In fact, most natural walkways (everything I can think of except dried wooden walkways or painted surfaces) will ground you!
9. Brick.
Did you know that brick will ground you as well, as long as it is directly touching the earth?
10. Rock.
Yep, any rock that is on the earth or part of the earth — touch it and it will ground you.
11. Sand.
Sand is really just a collection of mini rocks, and so yes… sand will ground you (especially if the sand is wet, as you’ll see in #15 below!)
12. Flowers.
All flowers that are rooted and growing out of the ground outside will ground you just by touching their stems, leaves or petals! Might be hard to come by in winter, but keep this idea tucked away in the back of your mind as spring is just right around the corner…
13. Trees.
The moist parts on trees (leaves are best!) will ground you, no matter how high up in the air they reach, as I show you in this TikTok where I demonstrate grounding on a balcony!
@laurakonivermd Reply to @thecaliforniagirl1 yes absolutely! No need to be on the earth directly when trees are nearby ❤️ #grounding #earthing #natureheals
Just be aware that thick bark insulates you from the moist, grounded inner wood (and the circulation of the tree, the vascular cambium, which is what carries the ground connection up to the leaves) so if the tree has a layer of dry, thick bark, it’s better to touch a leaf, look for moss growing on the tree or find areas where the bark is thinner to get grounded.
14. Weeds.
Yep just like the fern and flowers, anything that is rooted in the ground — even a pesky dandelion or a thistle or thorn or other unwanted underbrush — it will all ground you just the same as soft grass would, no matter how gnarly or uninviting the weeds seem!
15. Water.
This is the most impressive, strong ground connection you can make — water. Just having one cell in your body touch one drop of water on the earth will powerfully ground you from head to toe. One fingertip touching the very top of a stream, lake, pond, river, puddle, or ocean will do the trick.
I show you this with my grounding test meter at the end of this video here.
Want to test these surfaces and more, where you live?
You can grab the same test meter I use to confirm if a surface is grounding you right here.
I have a special cord custom made, by hand right here in the USA, to use specifically with these test meters, so as far as I know, my Grounding Boutique is the only place to find the complete set up. I’d love to send one your way!
What about indoors?
There are lots of indoor ways to get grounded too, and I run through a bunch of them for you here in this TikTok here.
Your sink, bathtub, basement, garage… they are all waiting to give you some grounding support where it is most easily accessible in the winter — indoors!
@laurakonivermd Your sink, bath, garage, basement, pets, etc… can all ground you! #grounding #earthing #indoorgroundingtips #groundingtechique #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician
I hope this has been super helpful!
Next week we continue in our series with:
- Grounding 102: The Medical Research Confirming Head To Toe Benefits
- Grounding 103: What Dirty Electricity Is & How To Fix It
- Grounding 104: Grounding For Your Specific Healing Goals
- Grounding 105: The Minimum Time You Need To Ground For Sustained Results
If someone has forwarded you this free healing article and you want to get the rest of the series into your own inbox, sign up for my weekly uplifting, healing newsletter right here:
xoxo, Laura Koniver MD
