As a toddler, Josh Patner turned accustomed to stepping over his mother, who used to lie down within the kitchen each time her mother-in-law would name.
“My grandmother would speak her ear off,” Mr. Patner, 61, recalled. To manage, his mom would “lie on the ground and maintain the cellphone away from her head.” Mr. Patner’s father, additionally a fan of the ground, took a 20-minute nap underneath the household’s piano every night time after work.
So it’s unsurprising, maybe, that Mr. Patner enjoys ground time at his dwelling in Brooklyn and even at his pal’s locations — partially to stretch and soothe his again (he has scoliosis), but additionally, he says, as a result of it feels calming.
“If I do know you nicely sufficient to sit down in your sofa, I do know you nicely sufficient to lie in your ground,” he stated.
Whereas that is nothing new to Mr. Patner, others are simply now catching on to the follow: Posts with the hashtag #floortime have garnered thousands and thousands of views on TikTok.
Lily Bishop, a graduate pupil in Chicago, made a video exhibiting herself inclined on her beige carpet, silently staring on the ceiling, arms unfold large. “I’m a ground individual to my core,” learn the phrases emblazoned over the clip. “Assembly simply ended? Flooring. Dwelling from the health club? Flooring. Need to take a nap? Flooring.”
“I discover it makes me extra relaxed and current, and form of, like, slows down the anxious ideas,” Ms. Bishop, 27, stated when reached by cellphone.
For her, the feeling feels much like watching ocean waves wash ashore — however with out the journey to the seaside.
“You don’t must have a serene, pure surroundings,” Ms. Bishop stated. “You simply want the ground.”
What’s so nice about being on the ground?
Though there isn’t a physique of analysis that extols the advantages of mendacity on the bottom, psychologists say spending time on the ground is unlikely to harm, and might even assist us really feel grounded.
Whenever you lie flat in your again, your posture is open and relaxed, which can have a chilled impact, stated Ellen Hendriksen, a scientific psychologist in Boston.
“Your physique and temper need to align,” she stated. For this reason it’s tough to really feel hopeful and optimistic in case you’re slumped in your chair, head hanging down, she added. Or why our shoulders shoot up or our jaws clench once we’re anxious.
Mendacity on the bottom may additionally assist us keep away from ruminating, defined Alan Fogel, a professor emeritus of psychology on the College of Utah and the creator of “Restorative Embodiment and Resilience.”
“In our Western tradition, we don’t have plenty of areas for restoration,” Dr. Fogel stated. “There’s no timeouts. There’s no recess.”
You might assume {that a} comfy mattress could be extra conducive to rest. “However usually what occurs, particularly in acquainted locations like our mattress, is our thoughts retains working,” Dr. Fogel stated. “We take into consideration what occurred throughout the day. We take into consideration what we may have accomplished or ought to have accomplished.”
When mendacity on a tougher floor like the ground, nonetheless, it’s possible you’ll change into extra attuned to what your physique is feeling and fewer centered in your ideas.
To get comfy, it turns into essential to sink into the ground and soften your muscle mass, Dr. Fogel added. The deal with letting go makes it simpler to assist the physique and thoughts decompress — to “simply be,” he stated.
Kara Lennon, 34, an account government and an indoor biking teacher in Boston, has been a fan of ground time for a couple of decade.
“It’s like going exterior and sitting within the solar” for a couple of minutes, she stated. You’re feeling higher, “after which you may get again to no matter you’re doing.”
Folks have been gravitating to the bottom for hundreds of years. Examples embody the yoga pose savasana, which helps individuals slowly chill out every a part of the physique whereas mendacity on their backs; Zen meditation or tea ceremonies that usually happen on the ground; and the radiant ground heating system in Korean properties, which makes the bottom much more engaging for sleeping, learning or consuming.
Is mendacity on the ground for you?
Not everybody will discover aid on the ground. Some could have bodily challenges, as an illustration, that make it uncomfortable or painful to decrease themselves to the bottom.
If you’ll be able to strive it and need to give ground time a go, “focus in your breath, actually flip inward,” stated Rachel Goldman, a psychologist and scientific assistant professor of psychiatry on the NYU Grossman College of Drugs. Do you are feeling extra relaxed, extra grounded or extra in management? If that’s the case, she stated, “it’s one extra technique that you should use while you really feel like you could.”
Ms. Lennon acknowledged that “it may appear foolish,” however in her case, taking a ground break for even just some minutes every day permits her to be extra productive whereas working from dwelling.
“It’s urgent the reset button for a second,” she stated.
