Why Connecting to the Earth Calms the Body and Mind

(Feet First… and Head First)

One of the simplest, most instinctive things I do when I feel tense, wired, stressed out or “too on” is this:

I get down on the grass.
I move into child’s pose.
I rest my forehead on the earth.
My hands settle into the grass beside my head.

No technique.
No intention-setting.
No fixing.

Just contact.

And every time, something in my system softens, not because I’m trying to relax, but because my body remembers something my mind has forgotten: I am supported. I don’t have to hold myself right now.

This thought piece is about why grounding works, why it’s so powerful for the nervous system, and why grounding through the feet and the head offers different kinds of regulation; both of which many of us desperately need.

What grounding actually is (beyond the buzzword)

Grounding is often spoken about in vague or spiritualised ways, but at its core, grounding is very simple:

Grounding is direct physical contact with something stable, solid, and non-demanding that the nervous system can orient to.

The earth doesn’t:

• Evaluate you
• Rush you
• Ask you to perform
• Require eye contact
• Need anything back

That alone is regulating.

Grounding brings the nervous system out of internal self-monitoring and back into sensory reality.

The nervous system reason grounding works

When we’re stressed, overthinking, or constantly “on,” the nervous system is dominated by:

• Vigilance
• Internal monitoring
• Future scanning
• Self-control

In this state, the body stays subtly brace; jaw tight, breath shallow, muscles engaged.

Grounding works because it:

• Shifts attention from inside the mind to external sensation
• Activates sensory and motor networks in the brain
• Quiets over-activity in the default mode network (the brain’s self-monitoring system)
• Signals safety through pressure, weight, and contact

This is not relaxation through force.

It’s regulation through orientation.

Feet-first grounding: stability, support, and boundaries

Most grounding practices focus on the feet and for good reason.

Feet-first grounding supports:

• Stability
• Safety
• Boundaries
• Orientation in space
• A sense of “I am here”

Standing barefoot on the earth, grass, sand, or stone gives the nervous system clear information that: gravity is present, the ground is holding you and you don’t need to float, brace or hover.

For people who feel: anxious, scattered, dissociated or un-anchored, feet-first grounding can be incredibly settling.

It’s grounding that says: you belong here, you have a place to stand.

Head-first grounding: surrender, relief, and deep regulation

What’s less talked about — and what I’ve personally found profoundly regulating — is head-first grounding.

Placing the forehead on the earth (as in child’s pose) does something different.

Head-first grounding supports:

• Release of control
• Relief from self-monitoring
• Calming of the mind
• Deep parasympathetic activation

The forehead is closely linked to the pre-frontal cortex (thinking, planning, self-control) and the vagus nerve (rest-and-digest regulation).

When you rest your forehead on the ground, you are quite literally taking pressure off the thinking mind (somewhere I’m often stuck) and giving the nervous system permission to wind down for a few moments.

For people who are very “type A’ and always feeling pressure to be productive as well as experiencing tension in the head, neck or jaw area, this can be far more regulating than standing practices.

It says: you don’t have to be upright, alert or useful right now.

Why head-to-earth contact feels so soothing

There are a few important physiological reasons this works:

1. Gentle pressure calms the nervous system

Deep, steady pressure (like forehead-to-ground contact) activates calming pathways in the brain, similar to weighted blankets or firm hugs.

2. It reduces visual and social processing

Lowering the head naturally reduces visual stimulation and social vigilance, helping the system downshift.

3. It interrupts self-surveillance

When the forehead is supported, the effort of “holding yourself together” eases, especially for people who live in their heads.

4. It restores a sense of being held

Many of us learned early to hold ourselves up emotionally and physically. The ground offers support without expectation.

Grounding is not about forcing calm

This part matters.

Grounding has nothing to do with trying to relax, telling yourself to be calm or pushing through discomfort, it’s one of the simplest embodiment practices you can do by allowing support to register in the body without interference

Even for a few seconds.

If your system snaps back into tension, that’s totally fine; you’ve just the current edge of your capacity.

Grounding as nervous system training

The real power of grounding is not the moment itself, it’s repetition.

Each time you:

• Make contact with the earth
• Allow some support
• Feel a brief softening
• And don’t judge the snap-back

You teach your nervous system that: Ease is possible. Support exists. I can return here.

A simple grounding practice you can try (this is my go-to stress reliever)

• Go outside if you can (if not, carpet or a smooth floor surface works)
• Come into child’s pose or kneel
• Rest your forehead on the grass, earth, or floor
• Let your hands touch the ground beside your head
• Stay for 3–5 slow breaths
• Leave before it feels like “too much”

That last part is important.

Safety is built by leaving early, not by pushing through.

Final reflection

In a world that rewards constant uprightness, productivity, and self-control, grounding is quietly radical.

It says:

I don’t need to hold myself all the time.
I can let something else support me.

Sometimes through the feet.
Sometimes through the head.

Both count.