As a baby, Josh Patner turned accustomed to stepping over his mother, who used to lie down within the kitchen at any time when her mother-in-law would name.
“My grandmother would discuss 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 beneath the household’s piano every evening after work.
So it’s unsurprising, maybe, that Mr. Patner enjoys flooring time at his residence in Brooklyn and even at his buddy’s locations — partly to stretch and soothe his again (he has scoliosis), but in addition, he says, as a result of it feels calming.
“If I do know you effectively sufficient to sit down in your sofa, I do know you effectively sufficient to lie in your flooring,” he stated.
Whereas that is nothing new to Mr. Patner, others are simply now catching on to the observe: Posts with the hashtag #floortime have garnered tens of millions of views on TikTok.
Lily Bishop, a graduate pupil in Chicago, made a video exhibiting herself supine on her beige carpet, silently staring on the ceiling, arms unfold vast. “I’m a flooring particular person to my core,” learn the phrases emblazoned over the clip. “Assembly simply ended? Flooring. Residence from the fitness center? 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 just like watching ocean waves wash ashore — however with out the journey to the seashore.
“You don’t need to have a serene, pure setting,” 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 relaxing impact, stated Ellen Hendriksen, a scientific psychologist in Boston.
“Your physique and temper need to align,” she stated. This is the reason it’s tough to really feel hopeful and optimistic when you’re slumped in your chair, head hanging down, she added. Or why our shoulders shoot up or our jaws clench after 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 quite a lot of areas for restoration,” Dr. Fogel stated. “There’s no timeouts. There’s no recess.”
You could assume {that a} snug mattress could be extra conducive to leisure. “However sometimes 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 might have carried out or ought to have carried out.”
When mendacity on a tougher floor like the ground, nonetheless, you might turn into extra attuned to what your physique is feeling and fewer targeted in your ideas.
To get snug, it turns into essential to sink into the ground and soften your muscle tissue, Dr. Fogel added. The concentrate on letting go makes it simpler to assist the physique and thoughts decompress — to “simply be,” he stated.
Kara Lennon, 34, an account govt and an indoor biking teacher in Boston, has been a fan of flooring time for a few decade.
“It’s like going outdoors and sitting within the solar” for a couple of minutes, she stated. You’re feeling higher, “after which you will 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 folks slowly loosen up every a part of the physique whereas mendacity on their backs; Zen meditation or tea ceremonies that always happen on the ground; and the radiant flooring heating system in Korean houses, which makes the bottom much more attractive for sleeping, finding out or consuming.
Is mendacity on the ground for you?
Not everybody will discover reduction 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 flooring 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’re feeling extra relaxed, extra grounded or extra in management? In that case, she stated, “it’s one extra technique that you should use whenever you really feel like it’s good to.”
Ms. Lennon acknowledged that “it may appear foolish,” however in her case, taking a flooring break for even only a few minutes every day permits her to be extra productive whereas working from residence.
“It’s urgent the reset button for a second,” she stated.
