Transcriber: Ghada Khalil Reviewer: Keira White
Remember when you were younger,
maybe in your early teens,
and at some point, you realized that you didn’t want your mother
to hug you in public,
you didn’t want to feel this, and you just wanted to be alone,
you wanted your space.
And then, maybe you got older
and you realized that, actually, you want your mom, you need her.
When I was younger, like 11,
I used to shout at my mom and I used to make her cry.
And now I call her every day.
A mother’s love is so nourishing. It’s so important,
and we must open ourselves to receive it.
And if your mother is not available, Mother Earth is always available.
She's here anytime, anywhere.
Mother Earth blesses us with the four elements that we need:
air, fire, water, and earth.
And by fire, I mean the sun.
These four elements are always interconnected;
you can’t really separate them.
For example, earth needs air, water, and fire.
It needs air to avoid compaction.
It needs water and warmth for plants to grow.
Air also needs water;
if it’s too dry or too humid, then we can’t breathe easily.
So, we actually need a delicate balance of these four elements.
Let’s start with air.
We need oxygen, especially living in a busy city like Cairo.
We need to make a conscious effort to breathe deeply and breathe better.
So, there’s something that I do every day, and I really don’t go a day without it.
I do breathing exercises in the morning.
It helps me breathe more balanced, from like, both nostrils,
and I feel more awake.
So let me show you what I'll do.
That's a very simple exercise you can do anywhere.
First, you have to sit comfortably with your back straight,
and all we’re going to do is just first exhale all the air,
and then inhale for one, two, three, four, and hold.
Exhale, two, three, four, and hold, two, three, four.
You can repeat this as many times as you want,
and you can also combine it with other exercises.
So I tend to do this for a couple of minutes every morning
and it’s really essential.
There's actually an interesting exercise called the Breath of Fire,
where you keep exhaling a lot until you start to feel better.
You can look it up online. You’ll find many breathwork exercises.
So I tend to do these in the sun because we need the sun.
The Sun gives us, not only vitamin D,
they say you need at least 20 minutes a day to get vitamin D,
but it also increases our serotonin levels,
which is the happiness hormone.
So what does serotonin do?
It reduces stress, it gives us clearer skin,
and it improves our overall mood; it gives us more energy.
Some people might be concerned about spending too much time in the sun,
but you don’t need to be; all you need is 20 minutes, and you can split them up
as much as you want; a few minutes here, a few minutes there.
And for me, the morning is not enough,
I also need to watch the sunsets.
It’s the one thing that just restores my mood,
no matter what I'm going through that day.
So naturally, when you spend more time in the sun,
you might start to feel a bit thirsty.
We all know how important water is, but most of us forget to drink.
Maybe right now you could be thirsty. Check with your body. See how it feels.
So water is actually three quarters of our bodies
and it’s the same for the Earth.
Isn’t that interesting?
We need the water, but we also need to be inside of it
as much as we need it to be inside of us.
So, for example, taking a long shower, spending a long time in the water,
these things feel really good and they help us heal.
For me, being in the sea is like a therapy.
It’s like all of my problems,
not that they go away, but I know how to deal with them.
I get the lessons, I get the clarity,
and I come out, never the same way that I went in.
In Egypt, they say that people talk to the water,
and it tells them their deepest thoughts.
Does the water listen? Maybe yes, maybe no.
But in any case, it always helps.
And now we have the earth. Do you know how powerful the earth can be?
I'm going to give you two things that might be surprising.
On one hand, you have bacteria,
on the other hand, you have electromagnetic waves.
Recent research, since 2004,
with O’brien and many researchers in England
have explored how bacteria and soil,
especially one called Mycobacterium Vaccae,
can actually increase the serotonin levels and also restore our immunity.
So what you need to do is you have to interact with the soil;
you can touch it, you can plant,
you can make pottery, or you can just play in a garden like a child would.
And you can also get this bacteria from eating raw foods
or from just inhaling the air above the soil,
when you’re working with it.
So I personally really care about where my food comes from.
So I started to plant my own, and I have a little permaculture project,
which is an organic farm, and I go there once a week.
And I can tell you it’s amazing how much better I feel when I go there
and spend some time removing weeds or planting seeds,
and my mood definitely changes by a big deal.
So I usually go there
with like a million thoughts racing through my head
or feeling a bit low.
And then I come back a different person; it’s like I’m reborn.
And actually, this is the same thing that happens when I’m in the water.
What’s so beautiful about the Earth
is that you are reminded that the cycle of life continues,
the Earth is still spinning, and life is still growing on the surface.
Now, speaking of surface,
did you know there’s an electromagnetic wave
that is going all around the globe, pulsating at 7.83 hertz?
It’s called The Schumann Wave.
It was discovered in Germany by Schumann,
and they also called it Earth’s heartbeats.
So this frequency can actually remove any imbalance in the body.
It restores our natural state.
NASA even had to make a little machine
that generates this frequency for astronauts,
because before that, they used to go to outer space
and come back from the ionosphere with serious health problems.
And how can you get exposed to this wave?
Well, you have to be outdoors and you have to be barefoot
or with your bare hands,
and you have to just connect with the ground.
So, wearing shoes will actually disconnect you from it.
If you like to, for example, stand in the sunshine
with your feet in the sand or in the grass.
It feels amazing, doesn’t it?
When you do this, you're actually letting Mother Earth heal you.
So for me, being in nature is what feels right.
Anything else feels a bit off.
Being in a car, being in a building, if it’s for too long,
I start to feel like something is missing. I need to reconnect to nature.
It makes me feel safe. It makes me feel connected
When we allow Mother Nature to take care of us,
we also have to share this with others.
For me, it's waking up in the morning, spending time in the sunshine,
breathing in deeply, and connecting with the Earth
through my natural daily routine.
And then when I’m lucky, I go to the sea.
I also really emphasize watching the sunset or the moonrise,
or going to sleep with having that vision of the sky.
So stare at the stars or just look out of your window for a bit.
Remember where you come from,
and if you can share this with others, then the pleasure is intensified.
We all need each other, but we also need our mother.
Thank you.