I recently received a great question from a reader asking me to demonstrate with a ground test meter that I was truly grounded while touching cement.
Good idea.
Not only do I show you that you absolutely are grounded when touching cement in the video below, but I show you 15 different surfaces — besides just grass — that you probably walk by each day and didn’t know could ground you.
At the end, I show you the very strongest way to ground out of them all — yes, an even stronger ground connection than standing barefoot on grass… can you guess what it is?
Watch this quick video and I’ll show you!
15 Ways To Ground Besides Grass
Hopefully that will get you inspired to reach out and touch the earth in different ways, instead of feeling like you are restricted to grass this spring. Grass can be sprayed with chemicals, have fire ants, have dog poop, and sometimes just isn’t the best solution when you want to get grounded.
Most of the time I prefer to ground through my hands anyway, and I really don’t want to crouch down to touch grass with my hands.
Thankfully there are lots of solutions, like trees and flowers and bushes and metal signposts and metal railings that can all ground you while you walk or stand outside.
But do you prefer your feet? If so that’s easy too. For tons of easy ways to ground through your feet, including wearing grounding footware or many other great tips and tricks, read last week’s blog post on 18 ways to get grounded outside this spring.
As a visual, below I list all the different surfaces that will get you grounded, beyond the “just walk barefoot on grass†tired old advice.
Not that there is anything wrong with grass.
It’s just that most of us (myself included) are not lucky enough to have a lovely backyard full of grass… and who knows what is sprayed on the grass in public parks… so more often than not it is a sidewalk or a rock that will tempt me to reach out and touch it more than grass will.
So here you go…
15 Alternative Grounded Surfaces Just Waiting to Ground You Outside:
1. Gravel.
Yep, that gravel road, that gravel parking lot, that pea gravel patio… it’ll all ground you, particularly if it is damp.
2. Ferns.
I seem to be able to find these even when most other smaller plants have gone dormant or died in the winter… long after the grass is brown, I usually can find a fern on my winter walks. And yep, any rooted living thing, ferns included, growing out of the ground will ground you.
3. Moss.
Even moss growing on a tree, even moss growing on thick bark (which would typically block a ground connection) as I show in the video above, will get you grounded and feels oh-so-good. So if you are trying to ground through a tree that has a lot of thick bark on it, see if you can find moss growing on it to touch instead.
4. Slate.
Slate walkways are my favorite thing to walk barefoot on, I have a slate area by my front door that I ground on and I love it so much… and yes you are grounded the entire time you stand or walk on one.
5. Tile and Ceramic.
This might be a good solution for indoor grounding too. If you have bare tile placed on a cement floor in your home, you might want to grab a ground test meter here and see if you can ground by touching the tile, inside the comfort of your own home!
Just be sure there is no paint on the tile, because just like slipping a plastic shoe on your conductive foot, it will seal the ground connection away from you and not allow you to get grounded.
6. Sidewalk.
The sidewalks around your home, the shopping mall, your office, that restaurant you are eating lunch in… if the sidewalk is directly on the earth then they are all grounded and waiting to support your health, even in the most urban of environments!
7. Cement.
This is another great way to ground indoors directly to the earth — do you have a cement floor on your basement? Or your garage? Or your driveway? Or your patio? In the basement of your office building? Or your parking garage? It’s all powerfully grounded!
8. Pavers.
Similar to slate and cement and sidewalks mentioned above — pavers will ground you. In fact, most natural walkways (everything I can think of except dried wood walkways or painted surfaces) will ground you!
9. Brick.
Did you know that brick will ground you as well, as long as it is directly touching the earth?
10. Rock.
Yep, you can just sit on a rock and touch it and it will ground you.
11. Sand.
Sand is really just a collection of mini rocks, and so yes… sand will ground you (especially if the sand is wet, as you’ll see in #15 below!)
12. Flowers.
All flowers that are rooted and growing out of the ground outside will ground you just by touching their stems, leaves or petals!
13. Trees.
The moist parts on trees (like the leaves and inner wood) will ground you, no matter how high up in the air they reach!
Just be aware that thick bark insulates you from the moist, grounded inner wood (the “circulation†of the tree, the vascular cambium, is what carries the ground connection up to the leaves) so if the tree has a layer of dry, thick bark, it’s better to touch a leaf, look for moss growing on the tree (like I show you in the above video) or find areas where the bark is thinner to get grounded.
14. Weeds.
Yep just like the fern and flowers I show you in the video above, anything that is rooted in the ground — even a pesky dandelion or a thistle or thorn or other unwanted underbrush — it will all ground you just the same as soft grass would, no matter how gnarly or uninviting the weeds seem!
15. Water.
This is the most impressive, strong ground connection you can make — water. Just having one cell in your body touch one drop of water on the earth will powerfully ground you from head to toe.
One fingertip touching the very top of a stream, lake, pond, river, puddle, or ocean will do the trick!
What won’t ground you?
While it’s super important to know what will ground you when you head outside, it’s equally important to know what actually might be preventing you from being grounded at all.
Sadly, you can spend your entire day outside — eating outside, playing games outside, practicing outdoor sports, hiking outside, even camping outside all night long and never ever actually be grounded for one single second.
I hear this all the time from nature enthusiasts and hikers and back packers and campers, who believe that just because they spend lots of time soaking up the sunshine and fresh air of the great outdoors, that they are avidly grounding too.
But that just isn’t necessarily true.
So in the video below, I show you what surfaces will block you from reaping all of the benefits your body craves — and it really does crave spending time connected to the earth:
Outdoor Surfaces That Won’t Ground You
A quick list of what won’t ground you:
- Thick dry bark on a tree
- asphalt on the road
- thick layers of dry powdery snow or ice
- painted anything (painted tile, painted cement, painted metal)
- dried out wood or lumbar (a deck or a picnic table)
…none of these things will ground you.
Want to test all the surfaces that are out and about where you live?
You can grab the same test meter I show you in the video above right here.
I have a special cord custom made, by hand right here in the USA, to use specifically with these test meters, so as far as I know, my Grounding Boutique is the only place to find the complete set up. I’d love to send one your way!
If you have any other questions about grounding, hop over here to read my recent article on the Top 20 Most Common Grounding Questions I Get.
In it, I give you quick and easy answers for all of the toughest grounding questions I am routinely asked.
And below I’ve made some quick easy visuals of a few of the outdoor surfaces that will and won’t ground you. Feel free to share these images!
Ready to get grounded and feel it for yourself?
I’ve got you.
I truly believe that the practice of grounding — one person at a time, on minute at a time — can help put our world on a different trajectory than the path it’s currently on.
I don’t feel it’s an exaggeration to say that introducing grounding to your friends and family is the first step to getting them to open up to holistic healing… actually often it’s enough to get them open up their minds about anything, point blank.
Understanding that environmental activism goes hand in hand with embracing social and economic activism too, which means that showing someone how to get empowered in their own personal healing journey can be the first step to taking back their own power in many many different aspects of life.
If you have loved ones that you’d like to introduce to grounding, or if you have any of your own questions that you’d like to directly ask me, please join in (and tell your loved ones about) my upcoming grounding online class.
My Earth Connect class is the quickest way to jump start a grounding practice. It’s like a quick start guide to supporting your health through grounding.
Join my Earth Connect Class: starts on April 18th
Every single day in my Earth Connect class will bring you a new, uplifting, inspiring way to ground your body and support your innate health.
Have any questions about grounding?
What is the best way to ground for a particular health concern you have?
How to ground inside your home?
How to ground if you don’t have a yard?
How long to ground for?
How does grounding work?
Why does grounding work?
If so, this class is perfect for you — ask me any question at all about grounding and how it supports your body and I will answer you in our private class Q&A.
Join me in this two week course and get materials, tips, and ideas for grounding that you can use again and again and again, for the rest of your life.
To your natural, grounded, ever-resilient state of health!
xoxox, Laura
