When you’ve appeared on social media for tactics to de-stress, you’ll have come throughout “ground time”: Individuals sprawled on the bottom at residence, on the workplace, even on the library as a treatment for the each day grind.
Social media customers say ground time periods deliver a way of calm and assist them really feel much less overwhelmed. TikTok creator @ian_horak says ground time is the “finest feeling after a protracted day.” One other person, @validmuphhz, says the apply helps relieve again ache, and creator @emilyhessey_ says it’s “good for the soul.”
Can mendacity on the ground actually decrease stress and provide different advantages? Right here’s what consultants suppose.
What Is Flooring Time?
As its title suggests, ground time refers to adults mendacity on the ground in numerous positions, whether or not on their backs, unfold out like snow angels, or curled up in a ball. TikTok person @ktreilly says it may be paying homage to tummy time, a apply of placing infants on their stomachs for restricted durations of time to assist strengthen their core, shoulders, and necks.
What Consultants Are Saying About Flooring Time
“As each a yoga instructor and a psychotherapist, I’m a giant proponent of ground time,” says Lauren Maher, a licensed marriage and household therapist and authorized yoga therapist in Los Angeles, and writer of The Chair Yoga Deck. “It may be a fast and straightforward option to take a bodily and psychological break, really feel extra grounded, and achieve a brand new perspective.”
Right here’s what consultants take into consideration the particular ground time advantages being touted at the moment.
Decreasing Stress
Flooring time could also be trending on social media, however it’s not a brand new idea, says therapist Rio Wilson, founding father of Mind-Physique Remedy in Tampa, Florida. “Bodily therapists, yoga instructors, and psychological well being professionals have lengthy used positions that place the physique on a agency, steady floor to encourage rest and physique consciousness.”
Mendacity on the ground can “sluggish the physique’s stress response and allow you to turn into extra current within the second, reasonably than changing into consumed by worries concerning the previous or future,” says Marty Maidenberg, a licensed psychological well being counselor and therapist in New York Metropolis. Decrease stress can create a larger sense of emotional steadiness, he says.
Flooring time can redirect your focus from hectic ideas, launch muscle stress, sluggish respiration, and reduce coronary heart price, Maidenberg says. “Whereas the preliminary stress factors will not be altering, taking a break from these stresses could make them really feel extra manageable and never so overwhelming.”
You would possibly affiliate sitting or standing with hectic actions, like working or scrolling your cellphone, and ground time can shift your perspective, Maher provides.
Grounding and Mindfulness
Mendacity on the ground helps you “interact with the world in a extra aware approach,” the place you discover what the ground appears like beneath you and what it’s wish to stare up on the ceiling, Maher says.
“A lot of my remedy shoppers and yoga college students have famous that they typically really feel extra grounded after they lie down on the ground,” she provides. “It offers a second of calm, and a time to breathe extra totally.”
“The feeling of being totally supported by the bottom can create a sense of security and stability that some individuals discover calming,” Wilson says.
Lowering Again Ache
Hunching over a cellphone or slouching in a chair all day can create stress within the neck, shoulders, and again, Maher says.
For some individuals, ground time would possibly relieve such stress and encourage higher postural alignment, she says. A agency floor can generally relieve strain in your joints and permit your backbone to settle right into a extra impartial place, Wilson provides. It could additionally enable you to acknowledge particular areas of stress or imbalance.
Ache is individualized, although, Wilson says. Mendacity on the ground may worsen ache for some, together with individuals with arthritis, hip issues, accidents, or nerve-related ache.
“If mendacity on the ground will increase ache or discomfort, it’s not the appropriate technique for that particular person,” she says.
Enhancing Posture
Flooring time alone isn’t a posture correction methodology, Wilson says, however it may well “enhance consciousness of posture.”
“Nevertheless, lasting enhancements in posture sometimes come from strengthening, mobility work, and adjustments in each day motion habits, reasonably than merely spending time on the ground,” Wilson says.
Boosting Temper
“Stress and temper are intently related, so something that helps decrease stress could positively have an effect on temper,” Wilson says.
Decreasing your coronary heart price and decreasing bodily stress can have a “significant affect on emotional well-being,” Maidenberg says. Giving your physique an opportunity to loosen up with ground time can interrupt stress and provides the physique an opportunity to recharge, which may cut back emotions of irritability or misery.
Simply understand that mendacity on the ground gained’t deal with despair or temper problems, Wilson says. Any temper advantages doubtless come from its capacity to advertise rest and cut back psychological stress.
Ought to You Attempt Flooring Time?
As a result of it’s easy and doesn’t value something, ground time is an accessible stress discount approach and will assist many individuals, Wilson says. Nevertheless it’s not for everybody.
Mendacity on a tough, flat floor could be uncomfortable for some. As well as, “Getting down and up from the ground could be difficult for older adults or people with steadiness issues,” she says.
Keep away from mendacity on the ground you probably have arthritis, joint or mobility points, or something that stops you from simply getting up and down, Maher says. In these cases, she suggests modifying the transfer by training mindfulness whereas mendacity on the sofa or in mattress.
Flooring time could really feel stress-free, however it shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for evidence-based stress administration approaches, equivalent to common train, high quality sleep, social connection, and when vital, remedy or treatment, Wilson says.
It additionally isn’t a treatment for nervousness or despair, she provides. “However it may be a useful gizmo for serving to individuals decelerate, disconnect from stimulation, and turn into extra current.”
