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You may have heard about grounding and thought ‘huh?’, or maybe sighed at the thought of another item for your checklist. Or even that grounding sounds like another hippy-dippy fad.

Grounding can be as simple as getting back to basics, shaking off the stresses and demands of modern life to allow you to reset and focus on being your best you.

There are all sorts of things you can do to get out of your head and be more grounded, and you don’t have to use crystals or sit on a yoga mat if you don’t want to!

1. Bake a cake

It might be surprising to learn that getting your hands into making something as simple as a cake or a loaf of bread can be grounding.

The physical act of touching the ingredients and kneading or mixing the dough reconnects you with your body and real, tangible, in-the-world things. You can’t use your smartphone for baking!

2. Go for a walk

Like baking, getting out of the house and going for a walk (preferably with the dog) will reconnect you with the physical world and with your body. Physical movement and feeling the effect of gravity as you walk or run is grounding!

You can also take some time to sit under a tree and relax for a while. Sit on the ground, rest your back against the trunk and allow your worries to float away. Close your eyes and listen to the sound of the wind in the leaves or the birds singing.

3. Get gardening

Nothing beats getting your hands into the earth for connecting with nature. If you don’t have a garden, you can have a windowsill or balcony garden. Or you can volunteer with nature groups, or maybe there’s a friend or relative who would appreciate some help in the garden.

As well as the satisfaction of tending and growing plants, now there’s scientific evidence that contact with certain types of social microbes like Mycobacterium vaccae can improve the gut-mind connection.

Getting grounded is not just about connecting with nature, although that’s a great way to do it! Being grounded is a lot about how you feel in yourself. It means getting out of the digital mindset and doing something real in the real world for a while.

It’s reconnecting with what you can do with your body, whether that’s running, swimming, making ceramics or landscape sketching. So, walk away from your computer, your tablet or smartphone for a while and feel the benefits of getting grounded.