In this blog post, we delve into the wonderful natural health benefits of spending time barefoot. Many of us take our shoes for granted, but walking without them can truly transform how we feel. From improving immunity to reducing inflammation, going barefoot allows our bodies to move in a more natural and comfortable way. Whether you’re enjoying a barefoot stroll in nature or simply relaxing at home, taking the time to go barefoot can be a gentle, grounding practice that nourishes both your body and mind.

Back to Basics

There’s something primal and freeing about being barefoot. But beyond the simple joy of shedding your shoes, going barefoot offers a surprising number of natural health benefits for your body and mind. In this post, we’ll take a step (a barefoot step to be exact) toward understanding how spending time without shoes can help improve your immunity and even boost your mood. 

1. Enhance Your Overall Well-Being

Connecting with the natural world around us can have profound impacts on our physical, emotional, and mental health. A recent study suggested that spending 120 minutes outside per week (just 18 minutes per day) is associated with good health and well-being.¹ The next time you’re connecting with nature, here are a few ways to kick off your shoes and reap the health benefits of being barefoot:

• Find a comfy and sunny place in the grass to stand and enjoy your morning coffee or tea. Take in the sights and sounds around you. 
• Need to catch up on some work? Grab your lawn chair and rest your feet on the ground as your work
• Nice night to enjoy a meal outside? Set up a folding table or chair in the grass and enjoy a full sensory experience. 
• Or simply walk a few laps around your yard or within the open space of a forest preserve. 

Incorporating one of these simple practices into our daily routines can serve as a reminder to slow down, appreciate the present moment, and nurture our connection to the earth.

2. Boost Your Immunity with Bare Feet

Simply explained as the art of being “present,” mindfulness is a practice that encourages us to remain open, curious, and non-judgmental. With roots in Buddhism and Hinduism, this practice made its way Westward thanks to Jon Kabat-Zinn and his introduction of Mindful Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Here are some of the noted benefits that can happen while practicing mindfulness:

• Improved Awareness
• Increased Energy
• Alleviates Anxiety
• Mental Clarity
• Boost self-awareness
• Increase connection with body and mind

One way to practice mindfulness is to utilize the art of “grounding” which is a psychological technique that serves as a means of distracting ourselves from anxious or intrusive thoughts. It can involve anything from box breathing to sensory experiences. For natural health enthusiasts, they’ve taken the concept of “grounding” quite literally with the recent introduction of a practice called “earthing.” 

However, earthing is about far more than just getting some dirt between our toes. Recent studies have highlighted that electrically conductive contact of the human body with the surface of the Earth produced positive effects on inflammation² and immune response.³ By incorporating going barefoot as a part of our routine, we can harness the earth’s natural energy to support our body’s healing processes and improve our overall vitality.

3. How Going Barefoot Can Improve Inflammation

While inflammation is a natural body response, chronic bouts of inflammation can lead to a range of health issues. Modern medicine is host to numerous treatments that can help in reducing inflammation and recent studies suggest spending time barefoot can help, too. A study that specifically studied the impact of “earthing” on chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases found that earthing reduces pain and alters the numbers of circulating neutrophils and lymphocytes, and also affects various circulating chemical factors related to inflammation.⁴

Their study noted other findings that included:

• Improved sleep by normalizing the day–night cortisol rhythm 
• Reduction in pain and stress
• Increase heart rate variability
• Reduced blood viscosity

While walking around barefoot is certainly not a cure to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, it can be a helpful complementary practice that may reduce some symptoms associated with inflammation.

Conclusion

Incorporating barefoot walking into your daily routine can be a simple yet powerful way to reconnect with your body and the Earth. By embracing this simple practice, you’re allowing your body to tap into its natural healing abilities and fostering a deeper connection with the world around you. So, take off your shoes, find a small patch of earth, feel the ground beneath you, and trust that every step you take is a step toward better health.

References

1. White, Mathew P., Ian Alcock, James Grellier, Benedict W. Wheeler, Terry Hartig, Sara L. Warber, Angie Bone, Michael H. Depledge, and Lora E. Fleming. 2019. “Spending at Least 120 Minutes a Week in Nature Is Associated with Good Health and Wellbeing.” Scientific Reports 9 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3.

2. Oschman, James L. 2007. “Can Electrons Act as Antioxidants? A Review and Commentary.” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 13 (9): 955–67. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2007.7048.

3. Chevalier, Gaétan, Stephen T. Sinatra, James L. Oschman, Karol Sokal, and Pawel Sokal. 2012. “Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons.” Journal of Environmental and Public Health 2012 (291541): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/291541.

4. Oschman, James, Gaetan Chevalier, and Richard Brown. 2015. “The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Inflammation, the Immune Response, Wound Healing, and Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases.” Journal of Inflammation Research 8 (March): 83. https://doi.org/10.2147/jir.s69656.