Front end of my career in horticulture I lectured at local garden clubs. Decades later, still lecturing at local garden clubs, in addition to key note lecturing in auditoriums, ballrooms, tents... Why? Old school, paying it forward. I owe the Garden Clubs. . Garden Club ladies 'made' my career. More, I see & experience what Garden Clubs do for their individual neighborhoods. What? Garden Clubs are the last bastion of civility in the tapestry of community. They keep neighborhoods informed of police activity, new/departing neighbors, holiday decorating, neighbors with a major health issue or new baby, often they send cards, bring meals, sponsor a yearly garden tour, have annual all neighborhood party, provide scholarships, maintain entrance signs/landscape and more. . Rare is the Garden Club lecture given, without me learning something new. . Giving a Garden Club lecture last month, during the Q/A, blessedly, a woman mentioned, walking on Earth barefoot. She didn't have a lot of knowledge about it but she had bought a book about Earthing, not read yet. . Fruit loopy enough to catch my attention. A joy to be past the age of perfect knowledge, instead of thinking she was a fruitcake. Today, had time to look up her cray cray comments about walking on Earth barefoot. Pic, above, here. . The National Institutes of Health produced, Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons. . Abstract "Environmental medicine generally addresses environmental factors with a negative impact on human health. However, emerging scientific research has revealed a surprisingly positive and overlooked environmental factor on health: direct physical contact with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the Earth. Modern lifestyle separates humans from such contact. The research suggests that this disconnect may be a major contributor to physiological dysfunction and unwellness. Reconnection with the Earth's electrons has been found to promote intriguing physiological changes and subjective reports of well-being. Earthing (or grounding) refers to the discovery of benefits—including better sleep and reduced pain—from walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems that transfer the Earth's electrons from the ground into the body. This paper reviews the earthing research and the potential of earthing as a simple and easily accessed global modality of significant clinical importance. " Full article, here. Pic, above, here. . The Earth Beneath Your Feet (Part 1): Why Going Barefoot May Boost Your Health and Beauty (and Dirt Just Might Act as a Giant Antioxidant), by Sara Gottfried, MD. "Is “Earthing” Totally Woo-Woo Pseudoscience? It’s called earthing because some scientists theorize that to stay healthy, particularly with all the stray electrons we’re exposed to from constant smart phone and computer use to insulation from our cars and shoes from earth energy, our bodies need a daily charge from mild electrical currents surging through the earth’s surface. Think of yourself as a walking talking battery-powered device. You need to plug into the earth to keep all your systems charged and running at optimum levels, particularly your adrenal glands and how they are managed by your brain signals (and burned out by stress). Hey, it works for your phone and your toothbrush… why not the human body? Sometimes called grounding, you can also accomplish the task by swimming in salt water. Just like electrical connections in our homes need to be grounded, so do we. Otherwise we go all haywire and the results can be major mood tankers such as: chronic pain, sleep issues, endocrine imbalances, depression, anxiety and possibly even mood swings and weight problems. Even the aging process itself." Full article, here. . Pic, above, here. Pic, above, here. . From, David Benjamin, " By walking barefoot we experience multiple benefits that we don’t receive either at all or nearly as much by walking with shoes. One of the more obvious benefits of walking barefoot is that we have a connection to the earth and it’s magnetic field. Our body is conductive to the earth and the earth is conductive to our body. The earth is full of negative ions and we flood our body with negative ions by walking barefoot, this is also known as ‘earthing’ or grounding. A great book to read to learn more about this is the book Earthing by: Clinton Ober. We need negative ions, especially in today’s world. Positive ions are more abundant in cities and anywhere near electronics and electro-magnetic frequencies. Think your cell phone, laptop, tablet, television, cell phone towers, microwave etc. Basically anything with a power source that emits a signal, bluetooth, wifi, even electronics that don’t emit a signal still emit positive ions. Because we live in a world of positive ions and disconnect ourselves from the earth’s natural negative ion field we are flooding our body with pro-inflammatory positive ions caused by the electronics and gadgets around us." Full article, here. More from this Author David Benjamin is the founder of HealthyWildAndFree.com. He's a health and & green living advocate. He is the author of Dirt Cheap Weight Loss: 101 Ways To Lose Weight On A Budget. He believes that if we take care of ourselves and take care of our planet we can enjoy a much more sustainable, healthy, happy and harmonious life. Eat your greens, Live green and appreciate the green around you! Pura Vida :)You can connect with me on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram. Pic, above, here. Pic, above, here. Pic, above, here. . Welcome to Earthing & Grounding. . Exciting to discover the science for what I've done, as a primal need, since earliest memory, playing on the Earth. Explains what I did moving from my 30 year home/garden. Began crying at a restaurant during dinner, day before closing. Crying became intolerable, had to leave restaurant, Beloved sure I'd lost it. I had. In the car all I could say, between sobs, Take me to the mountain, Take me to the mountain, Let me out at the walk-up trail. Smart man, performed as requested. I knew the only place I could stop crying was to lay flat on my back, on Stone Mountain. Pure granite. Under the stars & moon, laying on Stone Mountain, I cried, sobs. Did not know a person could do such crying, nor almost an hour of sobs. I was Earthing/Grounding in its most literal sense. . Explains my walking around Stone Mountain 3-6x/week the entire 33 years living in Atlanta. Earthing. Needing the ion exchange, without having the science or terminology. . Ha, who is laughing now? . If you've read this far, you got the science of Earthing/Grounding. . Garden & Be Well, XO Tara