Getting Grounded

Leaving a Toxic Environment

After months and months of sweat and stress, I am happily writing this blog from my first house! As I take a deep breath, such gratitude flows through me. Even more so when I do this from a seat in my backyard, amidst an array of different trees that have been growing for decades — their limbs stretching far up into the sky.

After being here for a week, I am well aware of the benefits this move has already done for my health, especially now that all the heavy lifting is done and much of the organization has been accomplished 🙂

Here’s a little background on my prior living situation, and why I am so ecstatic to be in this place right now and why it is a big step towards true healing….

The condo that I lived in for the past six years was right off a major highway. When I purchased the place, this didn’t bother me. The highway was only white noise to me. “My ocean” I called it — as the constant force from the cars flying by sounded like an ocean of sorts, Lol.

Looking back, I realize how much has changed since then. Six years ago, I had no idea that I had endometriosis. I had little care for toxins in the environment. I ate what I wanted. Pizza and ice cream were norm 🙂

After my diagnosis and turning to a natural healing path, I started to pay more attention to the toxins all around. 

I always heard rumors that the town that my condo was in was built on a dump. One day this memory popped into my head and I did a little Googling to see if there was truth to this claim. Come to find out there was a landfill and the location of it was right across from our complex. Seriously? Ugh.

When I drove out of the complex I was greeted by a long blue flame across the street. Something that made me wonder, but never question. Then my neighbor informed me that the flame was from a methane detector — Boo.

Methane is a gas that is emitted from landfills. Methane gas affects breathing as it disrupts the availability of oxygen in the air. Add this in with the pollution from the highway and my deep breathing was seriously disrupted.

In addition to the poor air around us, the water at the condo was extremely hard. It left a white scum behind. I am not sure exactly what this scum was made of? Lol. But I know by the looks of it that it was likely invading my skin, my hair…. my insides.

One final kicker to my old environment and a true kicker was the stress it brought — super dooper stress. After a year of living in the condo with no one underneath us we got a new neighbor who stayed with us for the next five years — a very angry neighbor, with an extremely loud stereo system with a bass system that literally shook the pictures on the wall.

He’d turn the music on at random times and often times over the music we heard screaming and loud banging. Well eventually this rage was directed at us. This man would often start banging on our floor (his ceiling) first thing in the morning or while we sat down to have a meal. He tended to do it when it was quiet on our end. He yelled violent words to us, trying to instigate a reaction.

One night as I laid in bed asleep I heard violent banging on the floor. And screams that chilled me. My husband, who had fallen asleep on the couch woke to the same banging underneath him a moment later, and as he walked the hallway to meet me in the bedroom, the bangs followed each of his steps.

“I can hear you mother f****er!” The angry man screamed.

As my husband came to each other we both heard words we will never forget, “I will kill you mother f****ers!” Bang, Bang, Bang — our whole little condo shook.

My heart raced and my whole body fell so, so cold, enough to bring on violent shivers. We ended up calling the police that time, who showed up in a mere minutes — at least five big officers lined the stairs to my condo.

One of the officers banged on his door for a solid 15 minutes. “We know that you’re in there!” I heard the police officer say. The coward did not answer.

These outbursts continued off and on for the next five years. It was either a random burst of extremely loud music and/or screaming, banging or screaming outside our door that he wanted to fight my husband.

Or there was the extreme opposite — erie silence. Absolute silence, as if no one was there. But he was. He hardly ever left the space below us.

This neighbor saga plagued our lives for so long. I wrote countless letters to the HOA until I was finally told that they would do nothing — that it was a neighborly dispute. Unfortunately the real estate market crashed during this time, so the value of the property dropped. Selling was not an option. We were stuck. 

Each day I prayed for peace below. I prayed that I’d be able to come home and not have to deal with one of these outbursts, or feel the extreme stress these outbursts caused. But truth was — I was afraid. I was afraid to walk down my stairs by myself and afraid to cross paths with this man in the parking lot. I felt like at any moment he could snap.

The police visited us often — they knew us and our dogs by name. Something about having a police officer in your home, is enough to raise adrenaline levels. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do.

So needless to say, when the real estate market picked up the past couple of months, we made a move to sell the place. We worked for hours on end preparing — moving things, cleaning, updating.

One day when we came home after getting the carpets cleaned (the last step before putting the place on the market), we spotted such a glorious sight — a moving truck and the angry neighbor moving his stuff. Gone.

The next weekend we sold the condo and found a new house on the same day — Synchronicity 🙂

We spent the final month in the condo free from the stress of the neighbor and felt no guilt passing the keys to the condo to a young single gal — who will hopefully have a better life in that space 🙂

Natural Elements for True Healing

As I wake each morning in our new home I find it so easy to smile. The sunshine beams in the windows — no need to turn on electricity. I let my dogs out to the back yard and watch as they run and play together, and then I get to experience the glorious healing abilities of my new environment.

I walk bare foot on the grass. Grounded.  

I have heard of Earthing, but unfortunately in the condo, I was not really able to participate in this healing activity. My balcony was concrete, and the grass surrounding was full of rabbit and dog poo and they sprayed the trees around with pesticides and used who knows what else on the grass.

The methods of walking barefoot on the ground are said to improve immune functioning, as electrons are transferred from the Earth. These electrons have antioxidant effects that reduce inflammation. It has been said that more energy is transferred with the ground is wet. This simple practice is said to balance out the nervous system. 

I am ecstatic to now have a full yard of grass 🙂 I walk around barefoot everyday — soaking up each Summer day. The yard is well shaded with a couple of large trees, and the older neighborhood we live in is surrounded by old, very tall trees. Love it.

My new environment is full of oxygen 🙂 And we live in a quiet cul-de-sac. Good-bye toxic ocean, Lol.

I love to sit and soak up the sunshine and listen to the wind in the trees. I get to wake up to birds chirping instead of motorcycles flying by.

And it gets better — the water in this house is awesome! Crystal clear. My skin and hair feel so soft 🙂 I no longer have to brush out the scum from my hair. This has to be an improvement on my health. Clean water is priceless.

On the Positive Side?

Living in this new wonderful environment means all the main elements have improved — Earth, Water, Air and the remaining ingredient — Fire which is building inside me. A creative, inspired fire further transmitted through more synchronicity.

A couple of nights ago I had the privilege of attending a conference lead by Joshua Rosenthal — the founder of IIN (the school I am currently attending). Joshua has been a great inspiration on my continuing path to wellness, so I was super excited to get to hear him talk live.

The conference allowed me to connect with different people in the program and chat about different subjects Joshua asked us to explore with each other.

One of the questions was how our “primary foods” had improved since starting the program. Primary foods are the most important factors in health — and include everything outside the food we eat. One ingredient of this is the environment you live in. 

As people were chatting, Joshua walked up to myself and the girl next to me and asked us to share with him what had changed. So I told him a brief synopsis of what I’ve written about here and how my move has already affected my health in a very positive way.

He smiled and shook my hand 🙂 Wow.

Joshua talks to much about synchronicity and says that it seems to happen more when your life is in balance. What a blessing to be able to tell him this story. I feel like I am more balanced in my new environment, refreshed and ready to take on a new chapter of life 🙂

I was inspired to share this all with you. Please take into consideration your environment in terms of your own healing. Is it healthy? Is it toxic — physically or emotionally? If it is, then maybe it’s time to plan your own move.

Until next time. Much oxygen and grounded love 🙂

Aubree.