4th June 2025 - late afternoon, Norfolk

Grounding usually elicits one of two responses when I bring it up in conversation. One is a look of very mild but polite ridicule, akin to looks when I rave about the benefits I've experienced from acupuncture. The other is usually from a total convert to the practice - the 'oh, yes!' exclamation and a beaming smile.

Today was my turn to experiment. I'm not entirely new to the practice, having done a barefoot trek abroad a few years ago, but I'd never 'done it' in the English countryside. I found a particularly soft and spongey looking stretch of grass along a riverbank and took my shoes and socks off.

I balled my feet up into fists and rolled my ankles around as my skin adjusted to being outside on the bare earth.

I would very much consider myself to have 'Winter feet'; a term used by frequent barefooters to describe the state of their feet when Spring comes along after a Winter tucked safely into warm, dry shoes.

The stretch of path I had chosen took me around 30 minutes to walk and was a patchwork of soft grass and exposed soil. There was a childlike joy to this walk. A feeling like I was doing something I wasn't meant to do. It felt wonderful.

I continued this way along the path, enjoying focussing on the sensations - the gentle tickling of the grass, the cold soil between my toes, my body shifting in different ways as I moved.

I suffer from chronic pain in my lower back as a result of injury when I was younger and I'm always on the lookout for different ways to reduce this pain and reduce inflammation.

Just when I thought my enjoyment of the afternoon had peaked, I heard the lovely two-note call of a Cuckoo from somewhere to my right. I sped up a little along the path, eager to follow the sound and he settled on a tree ahead of me. Still barefoot, I braved the crunch of twigs with silent ouches as I came to stand directly beneath him. Magnificent.

Though I couldn't see him, he sung a few metres above my head for what felt like 10 minutes. Cuckoo paradise, I thought. A loud rustle of branches and then he was gone.

Though my experiment was skewed by my sheer delight at my up-close Cuckoo experience, I can confirm that I felt much calmer and more centred as I left the trail and headed back home. I might try some barefoot walking around my garden over the next few weeks to harden my feet but I'll definitely be back outside walking barefoot again soon.

Roe Deer in the long grass in Norfolk