Walking Barefoot in the Rain
Most people run for cover when the sky opens up, but spiritual practitioners around the world have discovered something profound about dancing with the elements. Indigenous cultures incorporated the earth’s energy into their spiritual beliefs, attributing its power to heal and harmonize the body and mind, and this includes connecting during nature’s most dramatic moments. There’s something incredibly grounding about feeling rainwater on your skin while your feet make contact with the earth simultaneously. The surface of the earth carries a negative electrical charge, when your skin touches it directly, an exchange occurs. The body can then absorb electrons, which are supposed to help combat free radicals. The ritual of intentional rain walking isn’t just about getting wet—it’s about surrendering to nature’s rhythm and allowing yourself to be completely present in the moment.
Burying Your Feet in Earth for Twenty Minutes
Picture this: you dig a hole in your backyard, slip your bare feet in, and stand there like a human tree. Choose a place for the ceremony, and ask the land if it’s okay to plant yourself there. If it feels okay, then dig a hole big enough to plant your feet, or your feet and lower legs, into the Earth. Make sure you are barefoot so you feel what it is like to be grounded in that way. This practice might look bizarre to neighbors, but the science backs up its effectiveness. After one week of earthing therapy and at a subsequent follow-up, participants reported lower levels of pain, stress, depression, and fatigue. The earth acts like your body’s reset button, draining away the electrical chaos we accumulate from modern life. Standing buried to your ankles forces you to slow down, breathe deeper, and actually feel supported by something bigger than yourself.
Holding Conversations with Trees
Talking to trees might earn you strange looks, but it’s one of the most grounding practices you can adopt. Feel that your tree is firmly planted in the Earth below, swaying gently in the wind above. When you’re ready, gently open your eyes again. If you’d like, you can set an intention to carry this image with you through your day, knowing it is available to tune into at any time with just a few conscious breaths. Trees have been around for centuries, weathering storms and standing firm through countless seasons. When you place your hands on bark and speak your worries aloud, you’re not just venting—you’re connecting with something that represents stability and resilience. Many people report feeling heard and supported after these conversations, as if the tree’s deep root system somehow anchors their own scattered energy. It’s like having a therapist who never judges and never sends a bill.
Collecting and Carrying Pocket Stones
There’s something childlike about picking up stones that call to you, but this simple practice has profound grounding effects. Below is our assortment of recommended crystals to use for grounding. Each stone is listed with a few of its other metaphysical properties to provide a fuller flavor profile! Moss agate for stability, tranquility, self-expression, abundance, emotional balance, and releasing fear. The key isn’t necessarily about crystal properties—it’s about having a physical anchor that connects you to the earth’s energy throughout your day. When anxiety strikes or you feel scattered, holding a smooth stone in your palm provides instant tactile grounding. Your nervous system recognizes the solid, unchanging nature of stone and begins to mirror that stability. Some people develop relationships with specific stones, carrying the same one for months or years as a portable reminder of their connection to the earth.
Eating Meals Directly from the Ground
Forget fancy picnic blankets—try placing your food directly on clean earth and eating while seated on the ground. Springtime is the perfect time to make this transition as the earth is starting to give us our first taste of the abundance of the harvest. Watercress, leeks, rhubarb, artichokes, and fennel are just a few of the culinary gifts of the early spring. Test out new recipes and practice your kitchen witchery with these seasonal ingredients and absorb the fresh energy of the earth. This ritual forces you to slow down and engage all your senses with both your food and your environment. Our bodies thrive when we’re connected to the Earth, when we see the sunrise and sunsets, and when we feed our body good food and water. The practice creates an intimate connection between nourishment and the source of that nourishment. You’ll taste flavors more intensely and feel more satisfied with less food because you’re fully present with the eating experience rather than distracted by tables, chairs, and other civilized barriers.
Creating Spit Offerings to Plants
This one definitely falls into the “that’s weird” category, but hear it out. Giving your spit may sound strange but with intention, it is a way to physically leave a piece of yourself, and can feel like a better energetic exchange if you are, for example, taking a piece of bark or leaves from a plant or tree. Indigenous traditions worldwide recognize saliva as carrying life force and DNA—it’s literally part of you. When you offer your spit to a plant before harvesting its leaves or flowers, you’re creating reciprocity rather than just taking. Your “waste” is literally fertiliser to many earthly beings. Your urine creates nitrogen-rich soil. This practice shifts your relationship with nature from consumer to participant. Many people find this ritual surprisingly moving because it acknowledges that you’re part of the ecosystem, not separate from it, even in your most basic biological functions.
Sleeping Directly on the Earth
Trading your comfortable bed for a patch of ground might sound like punishment, but sleeping directly on the earth is an ancient grounding practice that’s gaining modern recognition. Our ancestors flourished in concert with these elemental interactions. Their daily customs—walking barefoot, wearing animal hides, and sleeping on the ground—ensured a constant exchange of the Earth’s electrons, fostering not just physical but also electrical health. The electrons served as a balancing force, tuning the body’s electrical frequency to match the Earth’s. During sleep, your body’s repair mechanisms are most active, and connection to the earth’s electrical field can enhance this natural healing process. Many attest to Earthing’s ability to enhance sleep, ushering in a deeper, more restorative rest. People who practice earth sleeping report more vivid dreams, deeper rest, and waking up feeling more connected to their natural rhythms. Start with naps in your backyard before attempting full nights—your body needs time to adjust to this primal sleeping arrangement.
Dancing Until Your Feet Bleed
This isn’t about self-harm—it’s about dedication to spiritual movement that connects you so deeply to the earth that physical discomfort becomes irrelevant. Sharing may involve simply dancing barefoot outdoors. Your feet drumming into the Earth and your body performing for a place is a beautiful way to do a ritual or ceremony to deepen your connection with a place. You can try deep breathing to start, let go, and see what movements the Earth inspires your feet to do. You can add in chanting or drumming, but I suggest starting simple so you don’t get lost in your head and stick with a state of flow. The bleeding represents breaking through the barriers between your civilized self and your primal connection to the earth. Many traditional cultures have ecstatic dance practices that continue until participants reach altered states of consciousness. The key is not seeking injury but rather dancing with such abandon that you transcend normal physical awareness and enter a trance-like state where you feel completely merged with the natural world around you.
Burying Personal Objects as Energy Release
We’re taught to treasure our possessions, but sometimes the most powerful spiritual act is letting the earth reclaim them. Create an outdoor altar and leave offerings of gratitude to the Earth, a tree, stream, rock, landform, tree grove, tree stump–the options are endless. You can symbolically bury power objects to represent something you wish to heal or ground an energy in your life. This practice works best with biodegradable items that held emotional significance—old letters, wooden jewelry, fabric from meaningful clothes. The act of burial represents surrender and trust that the earth can transform what no longer serves you. A grounding cord connects you to the Earth and acts as an energetic “lightning rod” to release any energy you don’t need. It’s like going to the bathroom, but on a spiritual level. You will release energetic toxins from your body and get a gentle healing all day long. Many people describe feeling immediately lighter after burial rituals, as if they’ve physically handed over their emotional baggage to be composted by the earth.
Washing Your Face with Dewdrops
Getting up before dawn to collect dew on your fingertips and wash your face might seem like something from a fairy tale, but this practice connects you to the earth’s daily renewal cycle. Morning dew represents the earth’s overnight cleansing process—it’s water that has been purified by contact with plants and sky. Focus on the water’s temperature and how it feels on your fingertips, palms, and the backs of your hands. Does it feel the same in each part of your hand? Use warm water first, then cold. Next, try cold water first, then warm. While that study refers to regular water, dew carries extra significance because it’s nature’s gift that appears without human intervention. The ritual forces you to be present during the earth’s most peaceful hour, when dew forms in silence. People who practice dew washing describe feeling renewed and more aligned with natural rhythms, as if they’ve absorbed some of the earth’s overnight restoration process.
Sitting in Complete Darkness Underground
Finding a safe cave, basement, or root cellar and sitting in complete darkness for extended periods might trigger claustrophobia, but it’s actually a powerful grounding experience. Underground spaces connect you directly to the earth’s womb-like energy, away from all electromagnetic interference from modern technology. Spending too much time on our phones, too much time indoors, and even eating a less than optimal diet can leave us feeling disconnected, uncentered, and simply not ourselves. Complete darkness eliminates visual distractions and forces your awareness inward while the earth’s mass surrounds you on all sides. Many people report profound insights during underground meditation because they’re experiencing sensory deprivation in the earth’s embrace. The combination of no light, no sound, and being surrounded by earth creates a unique state of consciousness that can feel like being held by the planet itself. Start with short sessions—even twenty minutes can feel transformative.
Using Your Menstrual Blood as Plant Fertilizer
This practice challenges deep cultural taboos, but it’s based on biological reality and ancient wisdom. I have heard of many magick menstrual rituals, but I prefer to honour the Earth by giving my blood to a flowering plant. This is a very powerful ritual women can do to ground menstrual energy as well as connect with the Earth. Menstrual blood contains nitrogen and other nutrients that plants actually need—it’s not waste but rather recycled life force. Women who practice menstrual earth connection report feeling more aligned with natural cycles and less disconnected from their bodies during their periods. The ritual transforms menstruation from something to hide into something that connects you to the earth’s fertility cycles. Diluting menstrual blood with water before offering it to plants makes it easier for them to absorb while honoring the connection between female cycles and earth’s seasonal rhythms. This practice can heal generations of shame while creating tangible connection between your body and the earth that sustains all life.
Lying Motionless on Ant Hills
This might sound masochistic, but lying on ant hills (with clothes on and for brief periods) creates an intense grounding experience through confronting discomfort while maintaining earth connection. The practice isn’t about getting bitten—it’s about staying present and breathe deeply while small creatures remind you that you’re part of a much larger ecosystem. When we ground ourselves, we connect all three aspects of our essence, which include the body, mind, and spirit. It’s a mental and physical state that can generate energy. It makes us present and aware. As we stabilize and align our awareness, we feel in tune and have a sense of inner harmony. The crawling sensations force you to stay completely present rather than letting your mind wander. Many practitioners find that after the initial discomfort, they enter a state of heightened awareness where they feel deeply connected to the underground networks that ants represent. It’s like meditation with stakes—you can’t zone out when tiny creatures are exploring your body, so you’re forced into radical presence with your physical connection to the earth.
Collecting and Drinking Rainwater from Leaves
Instead of avoiding puddles, this ritual involves collecting rainwater that has gathered on clean leaves and drinking it as a communion with sky and earth. Natural sea or river water can potentially ground the human body in the same way the physical earth is proposed to. Rainwater that has touched living plants carries a different energy than tap water—it’s been part of the earth’s natural circulation system. The practice connects your internal water with water that has traveled from sky to leaf to your body, creating a sense of participating in the planet’s hydrological cycle. Many people describe rainwater tasting different from regular water—cleaner, lighter, more alive. The ritual requires patience, presence, and trust in natural processes, all of which are inherently grounding. Obviously, only collect from clean areas away from pollution, and start with small amounts to see how your body responds.
Creating Temporary Earth Altars with Your Hands
Using only your bare hands to arrange stones, leaves, twigs, and earth into temporary sacred spaces connects you to humanity’s oldest spiritual practices. Create an altar with natural elements, perform blessings, or simply sit in silent communion with the ground. Incorporate earth-centered ritual work that draws upon the elemental forces of nature. Use earth materials in your spells, such as stones, plants, or soil. Unlike permanent altars, these creations are meant to return to the earth quickly, emphasizing impermanence and natural cycles. Whether or not you believe in the spirits of nature, the energy among the grasses, trees, and animals is definitively different from that of your bedroom or altar space. Changing the location of your rituals and honoring and invoking the energies of the Earth can help to deepen your practice, provide you with grounding, and maybe even give your rituals a little extra something. The physical act of arranging earth materials with your hands creates direct tactile connection while the creative process engages your spiritual focus. These temporary altars become focal points for meditation, gratitude, or intention-setting before being lovingly dismantled and returned to nature. The practice teaches non-attachment while strengthening your relationship with natural materials and earth-based creativity.
These practices might raise eyebrows at dinner parties, but they’re rooted in thousands of years of human wisdom about staying connected to the planet that supports us. Research shows that spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, or reflection can reduce stress & improve emotional resilience. Cultivating spirituality involves exploring personal beliefs, fostering a sense of community & engaging in practices that resonate personally. In our increasingly digital world, these earth-based rituals offer something that no app can provide—authentic connection to the living planet beneath our feet.
