Grounding in Nature
Have you ever walked on the beach with your shoes off in the sand? Felt the sand between your toes and come to peace with the fact that you’re by a vast ocean and are blessed to be walking on the beach with no shoes and no problems?
Have you ever taken this practice of gratitude and presence somewhere like right outside your home?
Maybe you don’t live by the ocean and you only have a front yard or backyard or a park in the nearby neighborhood. With caution for the dog parks (because stepping in dog shit could put a damper on this moment), if the weather is right, try to go outside and walk in the grass with no shoes on.
Maybe just stand in the grass and recognize how it feels to have it under your feet.
Notice the temperature. Is it different on your toes, arches, and heels?
Where is it more pokey? Where is it more soft?
Is there any moisture your feet are picking up on?
This is a valuable mental health and spiritual practice known as MINDFULNESS.
There is a therapeutic process happening in the body when we physically connect ourselves to the Earth. It can help improve sleep- fighting back against insomnia, the electrons of the Earth’s magnetic field will flow through the body and have anti-inflammatory properties, as well as improving the functioning of the organs, improves heart health by synchronization, and the increased pressure on the feet improves our reflexology! I know… sounds like some hippy-shit but there is science behind it! (Oschman, 2015)
Try making a practice of standing outside (without the use of technology) for maybe 5 minutes a day…then 8… then 10 and journal about it. See how your physcial body reacts to the stimulation and how your emotional regulation follows.
