Read the full episode + resources here:

Becoming Natural website

https://becomingnatural.com/earthing-grounding-benefits

Have you ever taken your shoes off and stood barefoot in the grass… and noticed that it just feels good?

Not dramatically different.

Just calmer. Quieter.

That simple moment raises an interesting scientific question: what actually happens when the human body touches the earth?

In this episode, we explore the fascinating science behind earthing — also called grounding — and what researchers have discovered so far about how contact with the earth may influence the body.

You’ll learn what grounding really means, how the earth functions as an electrical reservoir, and how modern life has changed our daily contact with the natural world.

We’ll also explore:

• the physics behind grounding and body voltage

• why rubber-soled shoes changed our electrical relationship with the earth

• the “human antenna” effect inside modern buildings

• what grounding research suggests about inflammation, blood flow, and sleep

• why the human foot may be uniquely designed for contact with the ground

• a simple multimeter experiment you can try yourself

Grounding has gained attention in recent years, sometimes surrounded by bold claims. In this conversation, we take a slower and more thoughtful approach — exploring what the research actually shows while remaining curious about what scientists are still studying.

Along the way, we’ll also look at a deeper question.

If the human body developed for thousands of years in constant contact with the earth… what happens when modern life separates us from that environment?

Whether grounding ultimately proves to have major physiological effects or simply reminds us to spend more time outdoors, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on how our bodies interact with the natural world God created.

Sometimes the path toward feeling better isn’t complicated.

Sometimes it starts with something as simple as stepping outside and feeling the earth beneath your feet.

I’ve linked several studies below if you enjoy exploring the research for yourself.

AstroAI Multimeter:

https://amzn.to/4rnBs3G

Earthing: The Most Important Health Discover Ever! {Book}

https://amzn.to/4rkHguD

Hosted by Penelope Sampler

Natural Wellness • Chronic Illness Journey • Faith & Wellness

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📌 Note: I share what I’ve learned on my own journey — the things that have supported me in hard seasons. I offer personal experience, thoughtful research, and lots of encouragement. This podcast isn’t medical advice, and it shouldn’t replace care from a qualified professional. Always talk to someone you trust before making changes to your health routine.

© Becoming Natural Podcast.

71 | Earthing: The Promising Benefits Found in Grounding Yourself

Have you ever taken your shoes off and stood barefoot in the grass… and noticed that it just feels good?

Not in a dramatic way.

But in a quiet, calming kind of way.

There’s actually a scientific question hiding inside that simple experience.

Welcome back to the podcast. 71 | Earthing: The Promising Benefits Found in Grounding Yourself

Because depending on where you’ve heard about grounding — sometimes called earthing — you’ve probably encountered two very different messages.

One side says grounding is a miracle that can fix nearly everything.

The other side says the entire idea is nonsense.

As usual, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

So today I want to slow down and explore grounding carefully — with curiosity and with real science where it exists. Grounding, also called Earthing: The Promising Benefits Found in Grounding Yourself

We’ll talk about:

• what grounding actually is
• what physics tells us about it
• how modern life has changed our electrical relationship with the earth
• what research has explored so far
• and a simple multimeter experiment I ran myself that made this topic a lot more interesting.

Because when you strip away the hype and the marketing language, grounding becomes a fascinating story about how the human body interacts with the natural world God created.

What Grounding Actually Means

At its simplest level, grounding means direct physical contact between your body and the earth.

That contact might look like:

• walking barefoot on grass
• standing in sand at the beach
• gardening with bare hands
• sitting or lying on the ground
• or using a grounding mat that connects to earth ground through an electrical grounding system.

Nothing mystical.
Just body touching earth.

But grounding becomes interesting when you realize something most people never think about:

the earth carries a vast supply of free electrons — and the human body is electrical, too.

The Earth as an Electrical Reservoir

Electrons are negatively charged particles.

When two objects with different electrical potentials come into contact, electrons move between them until the charge equalizes between the objects.

This is basic physics.

It’s the same reason lightning discharges into the ground.
It’s why buildings are connected to grounding rods.

The earth acts as an almost infinite electrical reservoir.

So when your body touches the earth, your body’s electrical potential equalizes with the earth.

That’s the fundamental idea behind grounding.

Why the Earth Has So Many Free Electrons

At this point you might be wondering: if grounding involves electrons moving between our body and the earth… where do those electrons actually come from?

This answer could lead into an entire podcast about the miraculous design of the earth, because it turns out it involves something happening in our atmosphere every single day.

Lightning.

Across the planet, there are roughly 40 to 50 lightning strikes every second.

And every one of those strikes transfers electrical energy between the atmosphere and the earth.

Scientists call this system the global electrical circuit.

You can think of it like the earth and atmosphere forming a giant electrical system.

The upper atmosphere carries a positive charge.
The surface of the earth carries a negative charge.

Lightning and atmospheric electricity constantly move charges between those two layers, maintaining that electrical balance.

Because of this process, the earth’s surface maintains a stable supply of mobile electrons.

So when grounding researchers talk about the earth being a reservoir of electrons, they’re referring to this global electrical system that’s been studied for over a century.

Now what’s fascinating is that when your body touches the earth, the electrical potential between your body and the earth equalizes.

Your body essentially becomes part of that electrical environment.

Again, that doesn’t automatically mean grounding cures disease or dramatically changes physiology.

But it does explain why electrical measurements show the body’s voltage relative to earth dropping dramatically when contact is made.

The Body Is Electrical

We often think about the body primarily in terms of chemistry:

Hormones.
Vitamins.
Inflammation.

All of those things matter.

But underneath that chemical layer is another reality.

The body is also electrical.

Your brain communicates through electrical signals.
Your heart rhythm depends on electrical impulses.
Muscles contract through electrical activity.
Every single cell maintains a tiny electrical voltage across its membrane.

So when we talk about grounding, we’re talking about the body interacting with the electrical environment around it.

It’s not woo-woo. It’s scientific.

Modern Life Has Changed Our Electrical Environment

For most of human history, people were almost always in contact with the earth.

People walked barefoot.
They slept on natural materials.
They worked outdoors more.
Animals lay directly on soil.

But modern life changed that dramatically.

Today we are insulated from the earth by materials like:

• rubber shoes
• synthetic flooring
• elevated beds
• plastic materials.

These materials block electrical contact with the earth.

At the same time, we live surrounded by electrical wiring.

Alternating current flowing through wiring produces electric fields.

Those electric fields can induce a measurable voltage on the human body.

And one of the biggest everyday reasons we stay insulated is simple:

our shoes.

Why Rubber Shoes Matter

This is another small detail that quietly changed our relationship with the earth.

Modern shoes are usually made with rubber soles, and rubber is an excellent electrical insulator.

That’s one reason electricians often wear rubber-soled shoes — rubber prevents electrical current from easily traveling through the body to the ground.

So when we walk around wearing thick rubber soles, we’re essentially insulated from the earth beneath us.

Historically, shoes were very different.

Many were made from materials like leather, which is more electrically conductive than rubber. And for much of human history, people often walked barefoot.

Footwear also varied across cultures: soft leather moccasins, thin woven sandals, simple leather sandals — natural materials that kept the foot much closer to the ground than modern rubber-soled footwear.

So modern footwear has quietly created something that didn’t exist for most of human history — a nearly constant layer of electrical insulation between our bodies and the ground we walk on.

The Human Antenna Effect

Inside buildings, the human body can behave like a small antenna.

Electrical wiring in walls produces alternating electric fields.

Those fields can induce voltage on the body.

When researchers measure body voltage relative to earth ground, many people inside homes measure anywhere from:

Standing near appliances often increases the reading:

Lamps.
Refrigerators.
Extension cords.
Dimmer switches.

Your body picks up these electric fields.

But when the body connects to earth, that induced voltage can collapse dramatically.

And that’s something you can measure yourself with a simple multimeter.

My Own Multimeter Experiment

So I purchased an inexpensive multimeter and ran a little experiment. I wanted a little of my own proof.

I measured my body voltage relative to earth ground in several conditions.

Standing inside with shoes:
540 mV

Standing inside barefoot:
430 mV

Standing barefoot on a grounding mat:
9 mV

Standing outside on concrete:
7.6 mV

Standing barefoot on grass:
ZERO mV

What fascinated me was how dramatically the voltage dropped when my body connected to the earth… and yes — even concrete can be conductive.

Inside the house, the body carried measurable voltage.

But when grounded, it dropped dramatically.

What makes grounding even more interesting is that researchers have begun asking a deeper question.

If electrical changes can be measured when the body contacts the earth… could that connection influence biological processes inside the body as well?

A small but growing group of studies has explored several areas where grounding might have measurable effects — particularly inflammation, blood flow, and sleep regulation.

The research is still early, but the findings have been intriguing enough to keep scientists asking questions.

Electrons and Inflammation

This is where grounding research becomes interesting.

Inflammation involves immune cells producing molecules called reactive oxygen species.

These molecules are highly reactive and can damage tissue if they accumulate excessively.

Electrons can neutralize reactive molecules by stabilizing their electrical charge.

Some researchers have proposed what’s called the electron hypothesis.

The idea suggests that electrons from the earth may enter the body during grounding and help neutralize reactive molecules involved in inflammation.

This theory is still being studied, but it provides a possible explanation for observations in early grounding research.

Blood Flow Observations

One pilot study examined red blood cells under a microscope before and after grounding.

Red blood cells carry a slight negative surface charge.

This charge helps them repel each other so they don’t clump together.

In the study, red blood cells appeared less aggregated after grounding.

If blood cells repel each other more effectively, blood may flow more easily through tiny vessels.

This research is small, but fascinating.

Grounding and Sleep

Researchers have also explored grounding and cortisol rhythms.

Cortisol is your primary stress hormone.

Normally cortisol rises in the morning and gradually declines through the evening.

When people live under chronic stress, this rhythm often becomes disrupted.

Some small grounding studies observed improvements in nighttime cortisol patterns, suggesting the body returned to a more natural daily rhythm.

Better cortisol rhythm often supports better sleep.

Again, this research is early — but intriguing.

How Modern Sleeping Habits Changed Our Contact With the Earth

There’s another small detail about grounding that most of us never think about.

And it has to do with how humans sleep.

For most of human history, people slept much closer to the ground — on animal skins, woven mats, or simple natural fibers.

Even later in history, sleeping surfaces were still closer to the ground and made from natural materials like wood, cotton, wool, or linen.

These materials are not perfect conductors, but they are far less insulating than many modern materials.

Compare that to how many of us sleep today.

Modern beds are often:

• elevated several feet above the ground
• surrounded by synthetic flooring
• built with foam mattresses, plastics, and synthetic fabrics.

Many of these materials are electrical insulators.

That means they reduce the electrical interaction between the body and the earth.

Again, this doesn’t automatically mean grounding dramatically changes health.

But it does highlight something interesting.

Sleep is when the body performs many of its repair processes:
inflammation regulation, tissue repair, hormone balancing, immune activity.

So it raises a question.

Did the electrical environment of the earth play any subtle role in the body’s nighttime recovery processes?

Researchers exploring grounding have begun asking that question.

Some early studies examining grounded sleep environments have observed changes in cortisol rhythms and sleep quality.

But again, these studies are still small. More research is needed before drawing strong conclusions.

Still, it’s fascinating to consider how dramatically our relationship with the earth has changed in just the past century.

And what if, in the same way we charge our phones at night to get the battery back to 100%, we should be “recharging” our bodies by sleeping grounded?

I have also read that sleeping on the ground can be better for the spine — the body shapes to the earth instead of the bed shaping to the body — but I’ll admit, sleeping on the ground is not my idea of a great night’s sleep.

Sometimes modern life quietly separates us from things our bodies once experienced every single day — sunlight, natural movement, fresh air, and contact with the earth itself.

Grounding may or may not prove to be a powerful physiological tool, but it certainly reminds us of something important:

the human body was designed to live in connection with the natural world.

Animals and Grounding

There’s another observation that makes this whole topic interesting.

Animals are almost always in contact with the earth.

Dogs lie on the ground.
Cows rest on soil.
Wild animals sleep directly on earth, grass, or vegetation.

They don’t wear insulating shoes.
They don’t spend their lives walking on synthetic flooring.

Their bodies remain electrically connected to the natural environment almost all the time.

Humans, on the other hand, now spend much of life insulated from the earth.

Rubber soles.
Synthetic carpets.
Elevated beds.
Plastic materials.

In a relatively short period of history, we moved from living in constant contact with the earth to living almost completely separated from it.

Now that doesn’t automatically mean grounding explains health differences between humans and animals.

But it does raise an interesting question:

If the human body developed for thousands of years in constant contact with the earth, could that connection have played some small role in how our bodies regulate themselves?

Researchers exploring grounding are essentially asking that question.

The Remarkable Design of the Human Foot

Now I want to shift directions just a bit, because this completely fascinated me.

The human foot.

What really caught my attention is the design of the sole of the foot.

The soles contain thousands of nerve endings.

These receptors allow your brain to detect:

• pressure
• vibration
• texture
• balance.

Your feet are constantly sending sensory information to your brain about the environment beneath you.

The soles of the feet also contain a high density of eccrine sweat glands.

And sweat glands do more than cool the body.

Sweat contains water and electrolytes.
Electrolytes increase electrical conductivity.
Slightly moist skin conducts electricity much better than dry skin.

So when bare feet touch the earth, the combination of thin skin, nerve density, and moisture may allow efficient electrical contact.

Interestingly, the areas of the foot that most often contact the ground — the heel, the ball of the foot, and the pads of the toes — also contain some of the highest concentrations of eccrine sweat glands in the body.

This is the part that made me sit back in my chair the first time I really thought about it.

Think about the design of the human foot:

Thousands of nerve endings.
Specialized receptors that detect texture, vibration, pressure, and temperature.
A high concentration of sweat glands that make the skin slightly conductive.

And all of that sits on the bottom of the body — the part designed to touch the ground.

The part we often treat as dirty.
Not living protected under the skull like our amazing computer system called the brain.

For how powerful and sensitive the foot is, it’s not protected at all from the environment.

It’s on the weight-bearing part of the body that we often neglect.

The very part designed to meet the earth also happens to be neurologically rich and electrically conductive.

Interestingly, grounding tends to work best on moist soil or grass because water and minerals improve electrical conductivity — which is why many people notice it most when walking barefoot on dew-covered grass.

Now we have to be careful not to jump beyond what the science shows.

But it does make you wonder:

Was the human body designed to have more interaction with the earth than modern life allows?

For most of human history, people walked barefoot.
They slept closer to the ground.
They worked in fields.

Today, many of us wake up, put on rubber-soled shoes, walk across synthetic floors, sit in chairs, sleep elevated off the ground, and rarely touch the earth directly — sometimes for days or weeks.

And maybe that separation matters more than we realized.

Genesis tells us that humanity was formed from the dust of the ground.

That’s a poetic image, but it’s also interesting physically.

The same earth we were formed from still interacts with our bodies in measurable ways.

Whether grounding turns out to be a profound physiological tool or simply a reminder to spend more time outside, one thing is clear:

The human body was never designed to live completely separated from the natural world.

Sometimes the path back to balance isn’t complicated or even costly.

Sometimes it’s as simple as stepping outside, taking off your shoes, and letting your feet touch the earth again.

Can we all agree how good it feels to walk barefoot in the grass or along a sandy beach? Or to lie on the ground and look at the sky?

Maybe there is more to taking the time to relax on the ground than just taking a break.

Myth vs Science

Grounding does measurably change body voltage relative to earth.

That’s basic physics.

There is early research suggesting grounding may influence inflammation, sleep, and nervous system balance.

But the studies are still small.

Grounding should not be presented as a cure-all.

What grounding definitely encourages is something we already know is beneficial:

spending time outdoors in contact with nature.

And if someone listening today is completely unconvinced by grounding research… there are still very real reasons why stepping outside barefoot can feel surprisingly good for the body.

These reasons don’t require controversial theories.

They’re simply rooted in how the body works.

So let’s talk about three of them.

1. Your Nervous System Responds to Nature

The first reason grounding often feels calming has nothing to do with electrons.

It has to do with your nervous system.

Your brain is constantly scanning your environment for signals of safety or danger.

Bright lights, loud noises, screens, traffic, and constant stimulation tend to activate the sympathetic nervous system — the fight-or-flight side.

Nature tends to do the opposite.

Natural environments tend to be quieter.

Visual patterns in nature are softer and more rhythmic.

There’s research showing that time spent outdoors can lower stress hormones and calm the nervous system.

So when someone steps outside barefoot and stands in the grass for a few minutes, their nervous system often shifts toward parasympathetic activity — the rest-and-restore state.

And sometimes what feels like “grounding energy” is simply the nervous system finally exhaling.

2. The Feet Are One of the Most Sensory-Rich Areas of the Body

Your feet contain thousands of nerve endings.

When you wear shoes all day — especially thick rubber soles — much of that sensory input is muted.

But when your bare feet touch grass, soil, sand, or stone, those nerve endings suddenly come alive.

Your brain receives a flood of information about the surface beneath you:

pressure, temperature, texture, balance.

That sensory stimulation helps regulate the nervous system.

In neuroscience, this is sometimes called sensory grounding — using physical sensation to bring the nervous system back into balance.

So even without any electrical explanation, walking barefoot activates a powerful network of sensory feedback that can calm the body.

3. It Brings Us Back Into Contact With the World We Were Designed For

For most of human history, people spent their days outdoors.

Walking on natural surfaces.
Working in soil.
Sleeping closer to the ground.

The human body developed in constant contact with the natural environment.

But modern life changed that dramatically.

Many of us now spend most of our days:

inside buildings, wearing insulating shoes, walking on synthetic floors, looking at screens.

So sometimes when we step outside and feel grass under our feet, something in the body recognizes that environment as familiar.

As natural.
As home.

And maybe part of what we call grounding is simply returning to the environment the human body was created to live in.

So even if someone remains skeptical about the electrical theory of grounding, there’s still a lot of wisdom in the simple habit of spending time outside.

Feeling the ground beneath your feet.

Slowing down long enough for your nervous system to catch up with your body.

Sometimes the simplest habits carry more power than we realize.

The Story Behind the Modern Grounding Movement

If you’ve spent any time exploring grounding, you’ve probably come across the book Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever?

It was written by Clinton Ober along with Stephen Sinatra and Martin Zucker, and it’s one of the books that helped bring the modern grounding conversation into the public eye.

Clint Ober wasn’t originally a health researcher.

He spent much of his career working in the cable television industry, where grounding electrical systems is extremely important for signal stability.

At one point he began asking an unusual question:

If grounding stabilizes electrical systems in buildings and equipment… what happens when the human body reconnects electrically with the earth?

That question led him down a long path of experimentation and observation.

The book shares stories of people who began spending more time grounded — walking barefoot, sleeping on grounding sheets, or sitting outdoors with direct contact with the earth.

Some people reported improvements in sleep, chronic pain, inflammation, and recovery from physical activity.

Now to be clear, these are testimonials — not the same as controlled scientific studies.

But they can be meaningful in another way.

Sometimes testimonials spark scientific curiosity.

They make researchers ask:

Why would people consistently report similar experiences?
Is there something measurable happening in the body?

That curiosity is part of what led researchers to measure body voltage, cortisol rhythms, blood flow, and nervous system changes during grounding.

So while the book itself is not a clinical trial, it helped open the door to a fascinating conversation about how the body interacts with the electrical environment of the earth.

Why Grounding Research Is Often Criticized (and Why That Doesn’t Automatically Mean It’s Wrong)

Some scientists are skeptical — and that’s actually a healthy part of the scientific process. We should ask questions.

Many grounding studies are small pilot studies. Some have been funded by researchers who are personally interested in the topic, and in science those things always raise caution flags.

Researchers prefer:

• large randomized trials
• independent funding
• replication by multiple research groups.

And grounding research simply hasn’t reached that level yet.

Scientific skepticism doesn’t necessarily mean something is false.

It often means the evidence is still developing.

Many ideas in medicine began as small observations that seemed unusual at first.

The connection between bacteria and stomach ulcers was dismissed for years before it became widely accepted.
The role of the microbiome in human health was once barely discussed.
Even the understanding of how sunlight affects vitamin D and immune health took decades to fully appreciate.

So grounding currently lives in that space where curiosity exists, some interesting findings have emerged, but the scientific community is still asking for more.

And that’s reasonable.

But it doesn’t mean the conversation isn’t worth having.

Because at the very least, grounding encourages something we already know benefits human health:

Spending time outdoors.
Moving our bodies.
Reconnecting with the natural world.

A Reflection

In Genesis we read that humanity was formed from the dust of the ground.

It’s remarkable that the same earth described in scripture also interacts with the human body in measurable physical ways.

After learning about grounding, reading the research, exploring the book Earthing, and even running my own little multimeter experiment, I found myself thinking about this topic in a slightly different way.

Not in a dramatic way.
More in a quiet way.

Because sometimes when we explore topics like this, we’re tempted to jump to one of two extremes.

Either we want to believe it’s the answer to everything.
Or we dismiss it completely.

But what I’ve taken away from grounding is something simpler.

It reminded me how easily modern life separates us from the environments our bodies were created to live in.

We spend our days indoors.
We walk on synthetic surfaces.
We wear insulating shoes.
We sleep elevated above the ground.

And none of those things are inherently bad.

But they are very different from the world the human body developed in.

Grounding, at its heart, is really just about reconnecting with the earth beneath us.

Walking barefoot.
Touching soil.
Feeling grass under your feet.
Letting your nervous system slow down long enough to notice the world around you again.

Maybe grounding turns out to have deeper physiological effects than we currently understand.

Or maybe its greatest gift is simply reminding us to step outside more often.

To reconnect with nature.
To slow down.
To breathe.

Sometimes health doesn’t come from something complicated.

Sometimes it comes from returning to something simple that was always there.

And for me, grounding has become less about chasing a health trend… and more about remembering to step outside and feel the earth beneath my feet again.

The Grounding Challenge

Before we finish today, I want to invite you to try a very simple experiment this week.

Not a big lifestyle overhaul.

Just a small moment of curiosity.

At some point this week, step outside and take your shoes off.

Find a patch of grass.
Or soil.
Or sand if you’re lucky enough to live near a beach.

And just stand there for a few minutes.

Feel the ground beneath your feet.

Notice the temperature of the earth.
Notice the texture.
Notice how your body feels after a few minutes of being still.

If you’re someone who enjoys experimenting with things, you could even try the little multimeter experiment I mentioned earlier and measure the electrical difference yourself. I linked it up on my website.

You don’t have to do anything complicated.

Sometimes the value is simply in the experience.

Stepping outside.
Breathing fresh air.
Letting your nervous system slow down.
And reconnecting with the environment the human body was designed to live in.

Maybe you’ll notice something.
Maybe you won’t.

But sometimes the smallest habits are the ones that quietly shift how we feel over time.

And this one only requires two things:

Bare feet.
And a few minutes outside.

Closing

If something in today’s conversation spoke to your heart, consider sharing it with someone who may need that same encouragement.

And if this podcast has been a steady voice in your week, leaving a rating or review is one of the kindest ways you can help it reach more women.

I never take lightly the time you choose to spend here. Being a good steward of the minutes you carve out of your day matters to me, and I’m truly grateful you share them with me.

Thank you for being here… for spending part of your day with me… and for taking small, faithful steps toward living well.

Keep becoming, one small step at a time.