“The only people for me are the ones who can go barefoot if they feel like it.”
– C. JoyBell C.
It starts, as all proper adventures in India should, with a tuk tuk, the kind with little side doors and round wing mirrors and just enough space on the back seat to fit four friends – as long as one of you doesn’t mind sitting on another’s lap.
It starts with a one-way bridge, the kind where you can’t help holding your breath as you cross, as though doing so will make the aforementioned tuk tuk itself contract in order to ensure safe passage.
It starts with a view from the aforementioned bridge, the kind you have to take a photo of, because you know there’s no way your mind will remember the shoals of dark golden sand, coconut trees and faint hills in the distance in exactly the same way.
It starts with getting grounded.
What starts, you ask? My pilgrimage to Galgibaga Beach in south Goa, otherwise known as Turtle Beach after the olive ridleys who come to lay their eggs on the nearly mile-long shoreline. With me in the rickshaw are Hannah, Monica, and Andreas – lovely friends I’ve only just met but connect with in such a way that it feels like much longer.
And what’s all this about getting grounded? It’s Hannah who introduces us to the concept (also known as Earthing) that morning at breakfast – that of grounding the positive free radical molecules in our body through going barefoot on sand or soil or grass or rock; anything, really, that’ll put us back in touch with the negative ions found in the earth’s surface.
“We never actually touch natural ground,” she says. “Go to the park, take your shoes off, just be there for twenty minutes. It’s like instantaneous grounding.”
Better yet, Hannah tells us, there’s scientific research to back the idea up, so it’s more than just the stuff of hippies and new-agey types – although there’s plenty of that, too. In a 2006 study called “The effect of earthing (grounding) on human physiology,” Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., researcher and director of the Earthing Institute, writes:
“Until a few generations ago, most humans walked and slept in direct contact with the surface of the earth. Our modern life style involves wearing insulating shoes and sleeping in buildings that electrically isolate the body from the ground plane.
While some people intuitively sense that they feel better when they walk or even sleep directly on the earth (as on a camping trip), most of the population is more or less permanently isolated from the earth’s electrical influences.”
I’m a little skeptical at first, but being a don’t-knock-it-til-you-try-it kind of person, I decide to test out the theory. The first thing I do when we get to Galgibaga Beach is kick my flip-flops off – and I don’t put them back on for the rest of the day. With my shoes off and the sun on my skin, I revel in our day of simple pleasures, in our day of getting grounded.
It is a day of strawberry lassis and salt in our hair and starfish that need rescuing and returning to the sea.
It is a day of writing in the sand and lying belly-down on the beach, totally content with nothing more than a Tuborg and good friends.
It is a day of watching the sunset and waiting to see whether or not the great red disc of a sun will ‘touch down’ on the sea or merely evaporate into the haze that hovers over the horizon.
It doesn’t.
But what does touch down is us, all day, our feet, which never leave the sand whether we’re on the shore or at Santosh’s Beach Restaurant, and when we get back into that same tiny tuk tuk at the end of the day and re-cross that one-lane bridge, I can’t help thinking that maybe there’s something to this whole grounding thing after all.
Love! SUCH LOVE! I hadn’t heard of grounding before this, but it’s definitely piqued my curiosity…and where better to try it out than somewhere like this 😉
Thanks, Naomi! And yes, I fell in love with the idea of grounding…you’ll definitely have to try it out sometime soon 🙂 Hope all is well with you! Where are you off to next?
So this is what I’m missing out on at Turtle Beach. Such a lovely place (and I love this idea of grounding. Hannah told me too, and I think of it each time I’m in the sea).
Yes it is! Have you and Brian not been yet?! We’ll have to change that once I’m back in Goa next week 🙂
Such wonderful memories and such a beautiful job capturing them:) So jealous you’ll be heading back to Goa for more beach and writing time! xo
Thanks so much, my friend! It was beyond wonderful crossing paths with you and Dre last week – I really love it when that happens. I only wish you could join me, Hannah and Kim for some more writing time and Turtle Beach pilgrimages next month 🙂 Hope all is well back in NYC! xox
This was such a beautiful account of a truly beautiful day. It’s a memory I will always treasure xxx
Thank you, Hannah! And I can’t thank you enough for making this day happen 🙂 You are such a lovely host and I’m so grateful to you for introducing me to both Colomb Bay and Turtle Beach. Can’t wait to join you there again in just a few days! xxx
I’d never heard of Grounding before, but I certainly know that I feel a million times better when walking barefoot. While living in Oz, I only wore shoes to go to work, it’s one of the things I miss about the place. I believe there’s something balancing about truly feeling the ground you walk on. Lovely post.
Thanks so much, Charlie, and thanks for stopping by again! That’s amazing to hear you only wore shoes to work in Oz..that is a serious amount of grounding 🙂 While I had heard of the benefit of negative ions when you’re by the ocean, I hadn’t realized it was something that applied to all natural ground. It’s something I’ll definitely be trying to do more of now! Hope you’ve had a great weekend.
I found your blog through Viator and love it! Such interesting topics. I an American expat freelance travel writer lining in Dubai. I am always looking for interesting and unique subjects to pursue. Love the grounding. Have never heard of it but it certainly makes sense. I am going to the beach in Dubai today and try it out. Thanks for sharing.
Hello, Katie! Thanks so much for your comment and for stopping by The Great Affair 🙂 How long have you been based in Dubai for? A good friend of mine is heading there in a couple of weeks, but I’ve yet to visit it. Hope you enjoyed your time at the beach this weekend, and I look forward to seeing you here again!
I live in Panjim, Goa and trying to help connect travelers and locals all over India through my travel website. After reading this I can’t help to control a sudden desire to ground myself in palolem and galgibaga again 🙂
Amazing, thanks 🙂
Cheers,
S
Thanks for saying hello, Shan! It’s great to hear from you – and interesting to learn about your site as well. I breezed through Panjim and Old Goa when I was here in 2011 and loved the many cathedrals and churches…it’s a very cool spot in India 🙂 Thanks again for stopping by, hope to see you here again!
Oh Candace, that’s sbeautiful! And the only thing more I have to it is a phrase I heard once on the radio. It was coined by a 6 year old who was being scolded for getting grubby outdoors. she said…
“But Daddy, free spirits have dirty feet.”
How very true.
My friend, please know how much I LOVE that quote. I’m writing that one down. Wish our free spirits could go explore somewhere together soon! xo