Getting Down and Dirty Outdoors

Have you been to Zion? In mid-March 2018 our family headed down to Zion National Park for no better reason than to step on preserved earth. We booked our first ever Air B&B in neighboring Orderville for a couple of days hiking around in a beautiful national park. Our kids range from 8 to 19 years old, though our oldest opted to stay at college withher cooler crowd. We’re a family that doesn’t get out a whole lot, but Heather and I had heard something interesting “earthing” concepts from a Bulletproof Radio podcast about 3 months ago. Dave Asprey’s guest talked aboutthe rich biodiversity among national parks (can’t find the specific episode). So we dedicated an extended weekend to an all-day road trip and uncertain lodging accommodations.

Earthing is scientifically proven to reduce stress and anxiety, to minimize inflammation, and to boost essential mitochondrial function.

Zion National Park

Once in Zion National Park we boarded a shuttle bus, exiting at various spots to take time to walk in bare feet just a few of the more than 100 miles of wilderness trails. All right, not all of the kids were on the “barefoot” bandwagon, but we human organisms have several ways of absorbing the ecological perks, just by virtue of what we absorb through lungs, skin and sight. As the intersection of 3 separate ecosystems, Zion has a variety of more than 900 species of plant life, not found anywhere else in Utah. Zion Park is a prime source for biodiversity.

What’s Biodiversity?

Biodiversity is rich inside some of the protected areas such as national parks in North America (source: TheGuardian). What’s so great about biodiversity? There are spaces on this green earth that have a greater diversity of organisms, due partly to ecology, geology and lower impact from humans. Technology and human innovations are cited for producing unnatural byproducts such as synthetic materials, chemicals, and various pollutants with lengthy hazardous half-lives. The human genome is a complex soup of bacteria, cells, energy synapses, and energies that reach far beyond the boundaries of our skin. Your gut alone contains 100 trillion simple and complex bacteria. Essentially, we’re made of the same stuff that we’re standing on.

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Earthing is when you connect your own physiology and cellular energy with the physiology of the environment around you. Earthing is scientifically proven to reduce stress and anxiety, to minimize inflammation, and to boost essential mitochondrial function. You can look at some science and research here (source: Shoes are Not Paleo).

Aside from the difficult-to-measure “bio” benefits, our brains were benefitting on so many levels…the magnitude of the canyon’s geography, the sounds in nature, and the time and distance away from electronic fodder. Our skeletal frames, muscles and cardiovascular systems were benefitting from the varieties of physical load balancing as we navigated the somewhat challenging terrain. And our central nervous systems were able to renew from the desert climate and varying temperatures.

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