Health Is in the Holding: How Soil, Nature, and Microbes Support the Body

The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all.

— Wendell Berry

A Foundation in the Dirt

During graduate school, I lived in a house that required more outdoor maintenance than I’d expected. The back corner of the house was starting to wash away, and if I didn’t do something about it, the foundation would be next. That’s how I found myself, between clinical rotations, coursework, and exhaustion, ordering dump trucks full of soil and mulch.

At first, it felt like one more thing. One more task. One more problem to fix.

But somewhere between the wheelbarrow loads and the hours with my hands in the dirt, something shifted. What had felt like a burden became something quieter. Something steadier. It wasn’t glamorous. I was sweaty, covered in soil, and probably tracked in more mulch than I hauled. But in a season that was heavy with stress and pressure, that work became the one part of my life that felt grounding. Even if I couldn’t articulate it yet, it felt like a return to something essential.

Grounding and Health

In healthcare, we talk a lot about the stress response, about inflammation, about systems being out of sync. But we don’t often talk about the antidotes. Not the ones that are free. Not the ones that aren’t apps or prescriptions. And yet, the evidence has been building. Gardening and being in regular contact with the earth are increasingly recognized as more than hobbies. They are connected to better mental health, more stable sleep, and even improved immune function (Chevalier et al., 2012).

Grounding, sometimes called earthing, refers to the practice of direct contact with the ground, bare feet on soil, hands in the garden, skin to earth. It might sound simplistic, but multiple small studies suggest it can reduce cortisol levels, ease pain, and support the regulation of our autonomic nervous systems (Oschman, 2007). In some cases, patients who slept grounded at night showed significant reductions in nighttime cortisol and reported fewer physical symptoms (Ghaly & Teplitz, 2004). While we still have much to learn about the mechanisms, what’s clear is this: our bodies respond to contact with the earth in measurable ways.

Nature as Regulation

And it’s not just about soil underfoot. Time spent in green spaces is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety, lower blood pressure, and improved focus. A walk in the woods. A half-hour in a garden. Even looking at a natural landscape can offer calming effects. The research is still unfolding, but the consistency is striking. Nature helps regulate us (Twohig-Bennett & Jones, 2018).

Water, too, plays a role. Studies of blue spaces, lakes, rivers, oceans, show that being near water can support relaxation and sleep. It might be the sound, the movement, or simply the break from urban noise, but being near water seems to quiet the sympathetic nervous system (Völker & Kistemann, 2011). These environments encourage physical movement, reflection, and connection. And perhaps, most importantly, they interrupt the patterns of stress that so many of us live inside without even realizing it.

Then there’s the microbial side of the story. Soil is alive. Healthy soil contains billions of microorganisms that interact with our own microbial ecosystems. When we work in the dirt, we’re not just making contact with the earth, we’re encountering diverse microbial life. Research into the biodiversity hypothesis suggests that this kind of exposure can support immune tolerance and may reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases (Rook, 2013). In other words, the body learns from the land. It’s not abstract. It’s immunologic.

What I Didn’t Know Then

I didn’t know all this when I first started hauling mulch in graduate school. I just knew that it helped. That it steadied something in me that was otherwise hard to reach. That the rhythm of physical work, the contact with soil, and the small visible progress I made with each load felt healing in a way my structured wellness efforts didn’t. Wendell Berry’s writing doesn’t offer healthcare advice, but it does offer clarity. He reminds us that the land is not incidental. It is the context. When we forget that, we forget something essential about ourselves. The soil isn’t a backdrop to our lives. It’s part of the equation. And our bodies, quite literally, are part of that system. We came from it, and we will return to it. That isn’t poetic. It’s biological.

A Return to What Grounds Us

So what does this mean for those trying to feel better, to find answers, or to reclaim some sense of stability in their health? It means that maybe, part of the path forward is not up but down. Not to the next product, but to the ground beneath our feet. It means that time outside is not just a luxury, but a form of care. And that what looks like dirt under the fingernails might actually be a quiet form of healing.

The work that once felt like one more burden became a tether. And while I no longer live in that house, I still feel it in my body when I need to come back to center. I go outside. I dig in the soil. I notice what I’m standing on. I return to what Wendell Berry knew all along. The soil connects us. And in that connection, there is health.

References

Chevalier, G., Sinatra, S. T., Oschman, J. L., Delany, R. M., & Menigoz, W. (2012). Earthing: Health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth's surface electrons. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012.

Ghaly, M., & Teplitz, D. (2004). The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10(5), 767–776.

Oschman, J. L. (2007). Charge transfer in the living matrix. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 11(2), 101–115.

Rook, G. A. (2013). Regulation of the immune system by biodiversity from the natural environment: An ecosystem service essential to health. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(46), 18360–1867.

Twohig-Bennett, C., & Jones, A. (2018). The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes. Environmental Research, 166, 628–637.

Völker, S., & Kistemann, T. (2011). The impact of blue space on human health and well-being – Salutogenetic health effects of inland surface waters: A review. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 214(6), 449–450.