Grounding Yourself At Work
Grounding at work can be as simple as stepping outside, connecting your feet to the earth and turning your face toward the sky, all of which have been scientifically proven to stabilize and replenish your experience of the entire day.
It can start with a deep breath and the internal separation or shift from what exists before you on the screen or that has been shared with you through the emotions of your co-workers or clients. This can be especially important for empathic and highly sensitive people, as they are more likely to absorb or internalize the emotions of others. The intention is to shift into a state of being in the present moment, to feel your muscles soften and to allow your work responsibilities to subside for a moment. Ideally, work will no longer feel all-consuming, and you will have the time and space to connect with what nourishes and replenishes you.
I like to start with a deep breath and the somatic memory of how sunlight feels on my skin. I do this throughout the day, but especially when I notice my emotions or my body communicating tension or overwhelm. I imagine the feeling of nature and being outside as a presence in my chest. I become aware of the feeling of spaciousness that creates and allow it to expand. This allows my body to feel lighter and more connected to my environment. I begin to feel more embodied. My muscles soften. I experience a separation of myself from whatever emotion or trigger I’ve just experienced, and I can choose to either observe it with curiosity or I let it go. This is my attempt to tap into what some call your “true self” which is a lovely term to refer to your natural, unencumbered state of being. I am lucky enough to work from home, and after this exercise in resourcing, I like to take a step out onto my back patio, usually barefooted, and water the plants in my garden boxes.
NCBI (The National Center of Biotechnology Information) refers to the phenomenal benefits of grounding as Environmental Medicine:
Environmental medicine focuses on interactions between human health and the environment, including factors such as compromised air and water and toxic chemicals, and how they cause or mediate disease. Omnipresent throughout the environment is a surprisingly beneficial, yet overlooked global resource for health maintenance, disease prevention, and clinical therapy: the surface of the Earth itself. It is an established, though not widely appreciated fact, that the Earth's surface possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons. The surface of the planet is electrically conductive (except in limited ultradry areas such as deserts), and its negative potential is maintained (i.e., its electron supply replenished) by the global atmospheric electrical circuit (Chevalier, G., Sinatra, S. T., et al, 2012).
Did you know that our brains resonate at a similar frequency to Earth? That the Earth’s electrical potential can influence cortisol secretion, chronic inflammation, and more? That the food we eat and the water we drink have frequencies (or lack thereof) and can affect our internal health accordingly?
Every living organism inside and outside of us has a unique frequency. A natural frequency, or the baseline frequency for a healthy organism, needs to be maintained in order to sustain health. Electrical and environmental disruptors such as wifi, cell towers, and household appliances can throw off these natural frequencies in our bodies and lead to symptoms that, while often different for each person depending on their unique situation, can range from headaches to insomnia, or, more detrimentally, chronic illness and oxidative stress. The good news is, the Earth is here for us, and connecting your bare feet to the ground can incite the process of restoring balance.
When the body is grounded, its electrical potential becomes equalized with the Earth's electrical potential through a transfer of electrons from the Earth to the body.
I often get screen headaches from spending multiple hours working on my laptop throughout the day. As I do this, wifi is simultaneously interacting with my every cell in the background. Unlike when something pokes my skin or when food makes me sick to my stomach, I can’t initially feel the effects of radio frequencies on a cellular level until they accumulate enough to present with a morediregct physical symptom like an intense headache, fatigue, insomnia, or irritability. Similarly, I can't feel when grounding is restoring balance within on a cellular level, but I can feel the aforementioned symptoms begin to subside. These physiological experiences will be different for everyone. Our bodies are so nuanced and dependent upon our unique mental/emotional, physiological, and environmental makeup and situations. In another article, I'll dive deeper into just how radio frequencies have been proven to have an effect on our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), our immune system, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and so much more, but for now, I just wanted to share with you something that I've found helpful to restore both physical and emotional balance throughout the day.
Our bodies are electric, our Earth is electric. Naturally, they all interact with each other. It’s a fascinating and brilliant system that we live in.
References:
Chevalier, G., Sinatra, S. T., Oschman, J. L., Sokal, K., & Sokal, P. (2012). Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth's surface electrons. Journal of environmental and public health, 2012, 291541. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/291541
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