Early September 2025

Another Gift from Mother Earth:

The Healing Benefits of “Grounding”

Oftentimes when even complete strangers learn I am a gardener, the conversation leads to them telling me how much better they feel after putting their hands in the dirt while gardening. Most of us would also agree that putting our feet in the sand at the beach,

or standing on a grassy knoll overlooking a meadow is rejuvenating.

These are joyous events for most of us that make us feel better. There is also scientific explanation for why we feel better called ‘grounding’ .

What Led me to ‘Grounding’

After decades of not understanding why I was losing strength in my legs and managing pain, I was diagnosed at Johns Hopkins Hospital as having a rare nerve disorder called schwanomatosis which causes chronic pain, numbness and weakness. It is characterized by the growth of non cancerous multiple tumors (36 in my case). I was finally forced to use a wheelchair 5 years ago.

After my first spine surgery at 38, not knowing exactly what I had, and always thinking I could work harder to do something to get better, I traveled all over the country to learn different healing modalities. I have had week long seminars with Mystics in Utah, practiced dousing with Spiritual Response Therapy in Washington state, gotten certified in Healing Touch, tried different types of Yoga, attended two 2 week long seminars on Myofascial Release in Pennsylvania, breathed deeply, meditated, and bought and held a lot of crystals.

I have gone to Nutritionalists and Naturopaths and even had Chelation treatment for heavy metal poisoning. (I live 1/2 mile from an active mine in Goochland and had high levels of radon in my well.)

I have embraced medical solutions of diagnostic MRIs, chemotherapy, 5 spinal surgeries, physical therapy and rehab…twice.

I have most importantly prayed a lot and had hundreds of people pray for me throughout my life.

I believe all modalities of medicine and Science, alternative healing methods and Spiritual practices are essential to heal. I am doing wonderfully well.

My most recent discovery for healing that I want to share in this blog is called “grounding.”

We Have been ‘Grounding’ Our Homes for Years!

The Earth has a negative electrical charge. Engineering practices use dirt (soil) as a conductor to absorb excess electrical charge and protect equipment and people from hazards.

By law, you need a ‘grounding’ plug in your kitchen, bathroom or outside plug to send any dangerous electrical charges into the Earth and not into our homes. Lightening rods also serve as a grounding method of directing lightening strikes in to the Earth.

The Wellness Practice of ‘Grounding’

‘Grounding’ also known as ‘earthing’ is a wellness practice of connecting bare skin to the Earth’s negative charge to reduce inflammation and improve health. In the caveman days when people wore no shoes, the benefit of grounding was constant. Wearing footwear and walking on sidewalks is just part of how we have disconnected from grounding and healing.

If you are an outdoor person and connect with the Earth often and easily, you are gleaning the benefits of grounding. If you are someone like me in a wheelchair… it’s tough to connect directly to Earth.

The theory is that by connecting skin directly to Earth, your body can receive electrons. The transfer of negative electrons from Earth neutralizes the positive charge that your body accumulates. This transfer potentially helps calm the nervous system and balance the electrical process.

Grounding also makes the speed of blood cells increase as they move. This reduces clumping of blood cell. Increased flow is attributed to increase in negative surface charge in blood cells. This makes blood cells repel each other and bounce around.

Inflammation before and after grounding is shown above

Potential Benefits when People Get ‘Grounded’

• Reduce inflammation

  -I woke up after one night and experience no pain in my hands.

  -When I traveled to a high elevation in Colorado, I had much less pain (inflammation) and swam everyday.

  -A friend of mine said she ‘forgot’ to take her pain medicine that she usually took every 4 hours.

  -A relative who has Rheumatoid Arthritis said she has been weeding and mulching her garden for the first time in years.

• Improve sleep qualities

  -My husband, 2 other family members and 2 friends said they definitely slept better. My husband knew because he had vivid dreams.

• Decrease anxiety and stress

  -Another family member of mine has much fewer and less intense migraines.

• Improve energy levels

  -I have started lifting weights because I have no pain. Swimming 40 minutes at a time takes less effort than before. I ride my stationary bike now every other day with no residual pain.

• Boost the immune system

How to Do It?

Place your bare feet in dirt, sand and or on lawn. You must have direct connection between skin and the Earth.

Buy a Grounding Sheet

To connect the sheet to the earth there is a snap on the corner of the sheet you connect to one end of the cord and the other end goes into the grounding hole of an electric plug.

The sheet has silver threaded through it in vertical strips to connect to the negative charge coming up from the earth. You lay on this ‘connected’ sheet and you are grounded.

In this photo, the red light on the top of the black ‘magnet pen’ lights up red when I touch the silver parts of the sheet to it.

That’s how you know the sheet is grounded and ‘on’.

You cannot sleep wearing pajamas, and have to avoid wearing lotions or anything that might come between you and the sheet.

You can find these sheets easily on-line. They cost from $89- $129 depending on you mattress size. You only buy a bottom sheet.

Buy a Grounding Mat

This looks like a yoga mat. You simply sit when you can ( at the computer is a good time ) with the grounding mat under your feet. The mats have been around a lot longer than the sheets.

Grounding for Pets?

Most of us would do anything for our pets. I wonder if in modern day America our pets are getting the grounding they need. In many cases the modern apartment condo dog walk only on sidewalks, or are stuck in a house or apartment all day. Lots of cats are ‘house’ cats. How are they getting their paws in the dirt?

But of course! There are grounding mats for pets!

Maybe you buy them a grounding mat to put on their bed and see if they feel better, rather than giving them pills or injections when they get sick?

I am not trying to sell you anything or talk you into anything. I just wanted to give you an awareness of the Earths power in healing people as well as our plants. If you don’t believe me just kick your shoes off and stick them in the dirt somewhere. See how you feel after 10 minutes!

Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as a personal and professional gardener.