The increase in research - some thorough, most, frankly, throughly throwaway - on the subject of earthing I’ll wager has more to do with entrepreneurs seeing a gap in the market than with momentum building on genuine ‘discovery’. Whisper the words earthing or grounding anywhere near a smart device and no end of sheets, mats, stickers, shoes, arm bands and machines appear everywhere, tagged with bold claims of curing everything from acne to cancer.

In a bid to thrive through winter without the usual pain flare-ups I jumped on a Christmas deal on grounding sheets and a mat. (Doesn’t Christmas make us all a little bit crazy). I figured they would also make a nice option for my clients to lie or sit on during our sessions.

I wish I could say conclusively one way or another whether sleeping on the grounding sheet makes any difference to my quality of sleep, my level of pain or my degree of vitality the next day. The truth is I notice no difference. I did have weirder dreams… but that may have been the constant Christmas cheese before bed… and then the flu. Standing on the grounding mat, though, does feel… good, different? But that’s as much as I can say for it.

What I can say with certainty is that, even on the grimmest day, taking myself outside - sometimes the block or two’s walk to the beach, sometimes the lawn at the side of my building - and making direct contact with the earth’s surface does always recalibrate me and decrease any inklings of body pain. Like getting a hug or communing with a loved one. It’s a moment of reconnection: ah, I am an animal on this planet. I am alive and however far I fall this is where I land. Supported. Skin on the ground.

I once got back from an overseas trip with a terrible UTI. Luckily it was summer because all I wanted to do was go and sit on some grass till it was all over. I felt like the earth could absorb the infection and carry it away. That’s instinct that has always served me well to follow.

Earthing/ grounding shoes? The people I know that wear them, love them. This may have more to do with the fact that they are designed to imitate a feeling of walking barefoot. And that feeling is wonderful. Many of my clients ask me about arch supports, shoe supports etc. They say they have ‘flat feet’. It bemuses me that we go in the direction of adding, always adding rather than taking away, simplifying. My answer and my suggestion is always: go barefoot whenever you can. The body is designed to heal itself and wow do we love to get in the way!

There are simple, wonderful techniques to bring your feet back into health. And as with the earth element this is the foundation: start with the feet. Start with standing and rolling a tennis ball under each foot for 3 minutes. More here (do watch this if you have plantar fasciatis, heel or pain).

When I lived in Taiwan one of my favourite things to do at lunchtime was to go to a park and walk across the especially created ‘pebble-pathways’ that provide a kind of self-reflexology treatment, the pebbles were not smooth by any means - some pathways were seriously challenging! I wish we had them here. Although Brighton’s pebble beaches do provide an even more intense version for the brave!

The research I referenced in your newsletter this week is here. And the Way Forward interview with Jim Gerard and Jim Law which I personally found profoundly interesting not to mention extremely well-researched in terms of what these guys have created, is here.

Lastly, if you’re curious about the Earth’s frequency/frequencies as I am about vibrations, waves, resonance and frequencies in general - this article from The Big Think is a fun read.