I’ve heard bits and pieces about the practice of grounding (going barefoot on the grass/ground or using a grounding machine) for supposed health benefits. Is it something that has any scientific merit at all like how neuroscientists have found that yoga/mindfulness can have positive effects. Or is it more like crystal healing and firmly in the realm of utter bullshit? Can it even be studied properly under the scientific method (basically can it be disproven or proven or is it one of these we technically might never know things?)
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Do you know what they call alternative medicine that’s been proved to work?
Medicine.
The idea is that since we now have rubber shoe soles, that the electrons from the earth don’t touch our feet and have antioxidant effects. It’s, frankly, laughably stupid.
>Can it even be studied properly under the scientific method
Yes. Often studies for pseudoscience are hard to find, because nobody’s going to fund obvious bunk.
u/Way2Foxy said it best. However, it is really lovely and relaxing to walk barefoot on fresh grass. Especially when it is warm and sunny.
I suspect must people, who aren’t allergic or have hay-fever, would destress. Especially if they also have a snooze on the grass. In the sun. (Speaking from personal experience 😂😂)
Otherwise, it’s like the episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit about yoga 😂😂😂
There is no scientific merit to the grounding of electrons by touching the earth with bare skin.
That said, the action of going outside and walking in bare feet includes many activities that do have scientific merit (in most situations for most people)
– You have to move to get outside. Science has confirmed that movement is good for your body. You also have to move to get back to wherever you were.
– You have to BE outside. Science has confirmed some benefits from being in sunlight, seeing and hearing outdoor stimuli, and being exposed to fresh air.
– Your feet receive stimulation. Science has confirmed some benefits from stimulating the skin.
– You break your habit. Science has confirmed some mental health benefits to changing position and location periodically
You get the idea. Getting outside and touching the ground has some benefits, but it’s not the “grounding” that does it.
This was not at all the text I expected to find in this post, so for anybody curious, the practice of mentally grounding yourself when you’re having an anxiety attack is completely unrelated to this and extensively validated as something we should teach all people in therapy! Cool question OP.
Any activity that makes you think you feel better likely has some scientific merit.
Expensive placebos have been proven to work better than cheap placebos in multiple studies. Because we think it’s better, it IS better.
No, that is not a good substitute for your heart/cancer medicine. A late friend decided that his new vegan yoga healthy lifestyle meant that he could stop taking his heart meds. He was incorrect.
The grounding part? No. That completely disagrees with the entirety of the bodies of knowledge of medicine, physics, chemistry, and biology.
However, (if you’re not me) you may gain some small positive effects from going outside and relaxing barefoot in the grass.
Me? I just get itchy if I spend too much time with bare skin against grass. Sort of the opposite of relaxing and refreshing.
There is something called grounding which is a mindfulness method of being aware of your surroundings, and it’s impact of anxiety, stress etc. the idea of walking barefoot on the ground is that you are paying attention to your surroundings from the sensations your are concentrating on
I’m not sure what you mean by a grounding machine. Of the kind of thing I can think it could refer to, you’re into crystals and that crap.
It is difficult to scientifically study many of the psychological and health benefits from mindfulness techniques in general, but it’s difficult to study the impact of many psychological/psychiatric therapies to determine how effective they are compared to others therapies. Various methods of mindfulness processes/meditations are being studied for how if impacts well-being in general, and specific situations (eg ptsd) and it’s going to take a long time to get a reasonably definitive answer, but there is a fair amount of positive research results coming through.
But at the end of the day, if you are stressed, struggling with you’re mental health, or just find that you are bad at relaxing, and you give some of these techniques a try, if it works for you, go for it. As long as you are not handing over lots of money and it’s not having a detrimental effect on you, then carry on imo
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