Grounding for Health

Grounding is a practice that involves direct contact between the feet and the ground, such as walking barefoot on grass, soil, or sand. In the West, it is associated with reducing inflammation, improving sleep, and maintaining the body's electrical balance. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this connection with the Earth is linked to the flow of Qi (vital energy), the balance of Yin and Yang, and the strengthening of the meridians.

In TCM, Earth is one of the Five Elements and governs the Spleen and Stomach, the organs responsible for digestion, nutrient absorption, and emotional stability. Walking barefoot strengthens this energy, supporting digestive function and mental well-being.

In modern society, excess Yang — caused by stress and a hectic routine — is common. Contact with the ground calms the mind, reduces anxiety, and balances energies by introducing more Yin, which is associated with stillness and coolness.

Another benefit is the reinforcement of Kidney Qi, which is essential for vitality and longevity. The feet contain key points in TCM, such as Yongquan, located on the sole and belonging to the Kidney meridian. Known as the "Bubbling Spring," stimulating this point enhances energy circulation and promotes a sense of grounding.

Grounding also improves blood circulation and Qi flow, benefiting those who experience energetic stagnation — often linked to muscle tension, headaches, and irritability. Additionally, it helps eliminate internal dampness, a pathogenic factor in TCM associated with symptoms such as fatigue, bloating, and mental fog.

Incorporating grounding into daily life is simple: walking barefoot in nature for a few minutes each day, massaging the soles of the feet, practising Qi Gong or Tai Chi outdoors, or using grounding mats to simulate contact with the earth. This ancient habit complements practices like acupuncture, enhancing balance and vitality in alignment with TCM principles.

Comments

Accounting for the Invisible

It is once more that time of year — the season for gathering documents, for preparing the annual offering to the revenue gods. Tedious, draining, bureaucratic. Yes, all of that. But it is also a curious interval of observation, a quiet adjustment of memory’s lens. After all, the past year — or at least its more tangible husk — lies partially inscribed in these papers. I say partially, for what is captured on the page is a witness of uneven fidelity. Absent are the details, the reasons, the delicate chain of responsibility. The numbers are all there: the income, the transactions, the movement of capital. But backstage remains hidden — the weight of effort, the hush of a conscience at peace. What is left is a pale suggestion of something more vital — this elusive current we call money. Energy transmuted, but only faintly traceable. A flicker of something once vivid, now flattened by ink and deadlines. And so I sift through the papers. Not merely to comply, but to remember. To...

What Strength Truly Means: A Letter to Men

There exists, hidden in the quiet undercurrents of our culture, a grand illusion: that manhood is synonymous with silence, that strength demands the concealment of pain, and that the measure of a man is his ability to endure without faltering. Such ideas pass through generations like whispered codes, accepted without question, repeated without reflection. And yet, when held to the light of reason, they wither like old parchment, for they are not truths, but relics of fear. It must be said — and said without apology — that you are allowed to speak of what has wounded you. To give voice to pain is not to surrender to it, but to name it, to limit its dominion. Silence may seem noble in the moment, but over time it hardens into a cage. Words, carefully chosen and honestly spoken, are the first instruments of freedom. You are allowed to weep — not as an act of collapse, but as a testament to your humanity. Tears are not the language of the weak; they are the body's recogniti...

A Malicious Rejection of Education

There are moments — quiet, unbidden — when one pauses and wonders: how did we come to this? After centuries of inquiry, of minds that charted the unseen and hands that steadied the fevered, we now find ourselves in a peculiar and disquieting place. A place where truth is not refuted for want of evidence, but rejected for daring to inconvenience belief. The antivaxx movement is a malicious rejection of education — not a lapse in understanding, but a deliberate estrangement from reason. It perplexes, not for its novelty, but for its brazenness. This is not the soft silence of the uninformed; it is the clamour of the wilfully blind, adorned in the rhetoric of liberty and cloaked in a defiant performance of scepticism. Vaccines — the elegant product of scientific rigour and logistical triumph — are cast aside in favour of speculation, rumour, and the seductive pull of conspiratorial thinking. To refuse a vaccine is not an emblem of critical thought. It is, more often, a retreat...

The Hyggelig Journey

Search This Blog