By Beverley Howden, EarthCare Team member
“The Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things” is a beautiful indigenous description of the oneness, unity of which we are a part. And from Naturalist John Muir (1869), “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else.” We honour our first Unity principle when we realize that the basis of all life is co-operation not ‘survival of the fittest’.
Let’s start with the very ground beneath your feet!
For thousands of years humans went barefoot or made footwear from animal skins. Their day to day life was immersed in Nature. Clinton Ober worked to ground sensitive electronic equipment. One day the thought struck him, when he noticed people walking by in shoes with rubber soles that insulate them from the ground, “Could that have some effect on health?” Yes!
Increased lack of contact with the electrical field of the earth has coincided with the dramatic increase in chronic disease. Free radicals link to inflammation and inflammation leads to disease. The negative charge of Earth’s electrons, neutralizes the positive charge of free radicals. Grounding/Earthing has been scientifically substantiated as profoundly healing.
We are immersed in unseen human generated electromagnetic fields (EMFs). EMFs can disrupt many body functions. Earth energy reduces the effects of EMFs. “If your body is somehow coupled to the Earth, no matter where you are, you are at the electrical potential of the ground. That means all of you, from head to foot. Your electrical potential is zero and no positive charge can charge you up…. If EMFs hit your body, their effect is cancelled by the electrons within your body supplied by the ground. Nothing can change your electrical potential, except uncoupling yourself from the Earth.” Earthing pages 234-5.
Now I know we can’t be outside barefoot all the time! But I encourage you to be out as much as possible – sitting barefoot while reading, gardening, ‘forest bathing’(check that for benefits!), walking on a sandy beach or wading. Earthing products plug into the grounding hole in electric outlets. Check out the Earthing Institute grounding pads for indoor use and other products
A virus has caught the world’s attention. And, yes, it is “hitched to everything else.”
“For too long our bodies have been viewed as capsules, sealed off and protected from ‘bugs’ by our immune systems and an arsenal of antibiotics, pesticides, and processed foods. The more insulated from nature, the better.” The authors of The Secret Life of Your Microbiome shatter this deeply held myth. “We are deeply connected to nature through our microbiomes – the rich microbial ecosystem of our guts and skin – and this connection is essential to health and happiness. From sugar-rich diets wiping out good gut bacteria and exacerbating depression, to microbes mediating phytonutrient absorption for the brain, to inflammation and cancer, the influence of biodiversity on our bodies is everywhere. The great communicator is our immune system, a ‘mobile brain’ that interacts with micro-organisms with profound health consequences.”
Let’s look at this from the perspective of the virus.
The spread of human habitation into once ‘undeveloped’ areas results in plants and animals being displaced. Viruses have also lived in those areas for a very long time in a healthy symbiotic balance with their plant and animal hosts. They really don’t like having their habitat destroyed!
“They don’t normally kill their host species. In well established virus-host relationships, in exchange for a hospitable living environment, the viruses offer certain benefits to the host species, among which is the protection of that host species from threats.” Page 108 Plant Intelligence. An example: rival species of monkey encroached on a territory. To the new monkeys the virus was deadly while within the host species of monkeys it never caused disease!
Microbes that kill people, particularly those that kill huge numbers in sweeping epidemics, is part of a complex gestalt in that “the balance is shaped by the behavior of the prey” (emphasis mine. That’s our species!) page 107 Plant Intelligence. Destruction and pollution reduce biodiversity of plants, animals and viruses. It also impacts the biodiversity of our microbiome!
“Even bacteria that cause infections are not inherently bad. The distinction between what is considered harmless or pathogenic lies not only in the properties of the microbe, but in the health of the ecosystem, the integrity of the barrier at the site of infection, and many general factors such as nutrition and stress, which are, you guessed it, all interrelated. In essence, we are learning to look at the disruptions in ecosystems that lead to the infection in the first place, the conditions that allow a microbe to become a pathogen. It becomes a matter of understanding balance and why it can become altered, rather than pointing the finger in one direction”. page 297 The Secret Life of Your Microbiome
“We have begun to see that microbes are the foundation of all life, not just in evolutionary terms, but right here and now. They are the glue that holds everything together. Without them, whole ecosystems collapse. Virtually every aspect of human health depends on microbes for healthy functioning. And the health of ‘our’ microbes depends on the health of the wider ecosystems in which we reside.” page 298
Let’s get back to your gut! Are you a friendly host? Providing an optimum terrain for ‘your’ microbes to thrive? They support your immune system so you thrive too! They help extract nutrients from food, help produce vitamins, are involved in essential oil metabolism, to name a few ways!
So what creates a healthy environment for them? I can’t give a full answer here but it does include eating organic foods (including lots of greens!), fermented foods, managing stress, minimizing exposure to toxicants, becoming aware that “antibiotics, hand sanitizers, chemical cleaning agents, antibacterial soaps, and gut-disrupting pharmaceuticals like acid-blocking drugs and over-the-counter pain relievers…. while they are purportedly designed to heal, these prescriptions inevitably destroy the system that has evolved to protect us.” Page 83 in Regenerate.
I received this from the author of Regenerate – worth every minute of listening!
Enjoy a healthy, deeply spiritual connection with Mother Earth!
Missing Sunday morning hugs? Hug trees! They will happily share electrons from the ground!
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References:
Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm – Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth by Stephen Harrod Buhner (senior researcher, the Foundation for Gaian Studies.)
The Secret Life of Your Microbiome – Why Nature and Biodiversity are Essential to Health and Happiness by Susan L. Prescott MD, PhD and Alan C. Logan, ND
Earthing – The most important health discovery ever? By Clinton Ober, Stephen T. Sinatra, MD, and Martin Zucker.
Regenerate – Unlocking Your Body’s Resilience Through the New Biology by Sajer Ji. www.greenmedinfo.com (his data base of over 10,000 researched health topics)
Note: No time to ask permission to quote. I‘m asking here for their blessings!
*Originally written for Unity Comox Valley