 Understanding and cultivating the requirements for living a healthy life is one of the most important foundations we need to build as both individuals and as a species. We can see very clearly that when the body is healthy, the mind works right. When the mind works right, the emotions are more fluid and true. When the emotions are true, the spirit can thrive. And simply having a more healthy body can dramatically increase our spiritual connection to ourselves. When the whole ecosystem of our body of consciousness thrives, we become powerful creators in our own rights. As we do this collectively, the entire world is transformed into the paradise it's designed to be through our good work in the world. It is critically important that we do this work, both internally and externally, because we need to bring both into balance to create real harmony. As Bruce Lipton teaches us, epigenetics, the environment, is what shapes our genetics, the individual. Epigenetics is the subset of phenomenon which affects genes from outside the DNA. But of course, the DNA still plays a vital role. Epigenetics are simply described as changes caused by the environment that affect how our genes are passed on. These flow hand in hand in a perpetual cycle of give and take throughout our existence. We would be remiss not to follow the basic rules of planet Earth, for these are the most important rules that make a difference when it comes to living as connected, planetary beings. Throughout our series on food, nutrition and health, we've touched on only a few of the challenges and roadblocks to living a life full of health and wellness. There are so many more things we could talk about, like the environmental and ethical atrocities of leather farms, the greenhouse gas emissions produced by factory animal farming, the deforestation of the Amazon to produce beef, the mass pollution of waterways from the runoff of these farms, the amount of grain and water required to feed all of these farm creatures that deforest and pollute even more land, and bioaccumulation of toxins in our water, using render farms to grind up dead animals to feed to our pets. Cruel fishing methods, mass marine extinction, and so much more. And honestly, if we just focus on that all the time and nothing else, it's like, oh Lord, excuse me, it's time for me to go live on a mountain in seclusion for the rest of my life. However, before you sell all of your worldly possessions, allow me to share with you something that can really make a difference and support the cultivation of great change. Now don't get me wrong, focus on the problems is important for us to understand them, to see how we've created the mess we have. But if we stare for too long and do nothing, we just make ourselves depressed and never create anything new. If we can shift our mindset and focus to a solutions-based approach to these challenges, we can shift our behavior and produce beautiful change with rapid speed. And this is exactly what happened in Australia many years ago. In the late 1960s, two pioneering academics in the world of agriculture came together to develop a new way of looking at how we live on the earth. In relationship with the requirement of healthy food, safe shelter, clean water, appropriate sun, fresh air, strong communities, and happy lives. By 1978, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren published Permaculture One and made it available to the public. This evolved into the final design manual presented to the world by Bill Mollison in 1988, entitled Permaculture, a designer's manual. It is from this manual that the world has been effectively changed for good, and we are seeing the effects today. Permaculture is the modern world's first approach to a truly integrated set of practices that takes into consideration all aspects of the ecology in any given region and allows for human populations to thrive alongside them, not at the expense of the ecology, but rather because of it. In fact, in 2018, Jeff Lawton, the protege and permaculture torchbearer of Mollison since his death in 2016, there is a project that was established in the Dead Sea Valley of Jordan, the driest and most desolate place on the earth, which shows just how powerful the living earth actually is when her principles are used in very specific ways. Now, not to spoil the surprise or anything, but there is now a living food forest there with self-enclosed running water, fruiting trees, vegetable and herb gardens, thriving animals and a whole series of other miracles that would not have been possible without these incredible practices. When we can get the paradigm correct, everything becomes clear and concise. The actions we need to take become specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. These are referred to as smart goals. Sure, these may have been introduced as a way for people to be more productive in the workplace, but they are applicable across anything that we have a clear sailing objective towards. In the case of permaculture, we have been able to achieve not just a clear objective, but also very specific results across the globe, even in desert regions that nobody believed would be able to grow anything. We know very well today that all living beings live as a part of a larger ecological framework. If forests are destroyed, the soil cannot thrive. If the soil is devoid of the biodiversity it requires to sustain life, plants cannot thrive. If plants are nutritionally poor, insects and animals suffer. If these systems suffer, so does the ability for all of life to maintain the ecosystems. Although humans have developed systems of agriculture that appear to be separate from this cycle of life, this is only an illusion. We are just as intimately connected to ecologies around us as any other creature on this wondrous living planet. One article on this subject writes, our research suggests that people who live in areas that have more and or larger trees on the streets report better health perception after controlling for demographic factors such as income, age and education. This same increase in health perception is also, on average, equivalent to being seven years younger. Results suggest that people who live in areas that have more and or larger trees on the streets report significantly fewer cardiometabolic conditions. The reason why permaculture is so important right now and possibly the most important subject we can attend to in this day and age is because it is a practice which brings back the biodiversity of a living planet once again. A biodiversity and ecology that we can participate with and thrive in. Permaculture is also available to everyone. It's not very expensive to invest in some basic materials to get yourself started. And due to the demand for healthy food, there are many people now bringing permaculture to the marketplace in their own unique ways. Permaculture itself is like a social-spiritual farming revolution, bringing us back to the age of farming but in a new, techno-savvy way that doesn't require the same amount of land or equipment and encourages creativity in how you approach your practice. For those who are interested, you'll find a link in the comments below to a website to help you get started with permaculture. As we've been exploring in some of our other videos lately, where we invest our energy, focus, time and resources is what we will continue or discontinue to create in the world. Even if you yourself are not called to start your own permaculture garden, you can support your local permaculture farmers. The point is, I want to invite you to do your best to live in alignment with the principles of the Earth and maybe even discover just how powerful your daily micro-commitments can be towards creating a more harmonious world, one small act of love at a time. Your increased health, wellness and longevity will be its own reward for your efforts. Bringing this series to a close, there is one final thing that I must share. As we've looked at before, we are what we eat. If we are eating healthy and living food, then we will in turn reflect that same vibrance in life. According to a recent estimate by the National Institute of Health, 90% of cells in the human body are bacterial, fungal or otherwise non-human. This means that up to 90% of your body is made up of a massive collective of small organisms that aren't necessarily you. At a conscious level, everything you eat is or was alive at some level, unless you're that one guy who ate the plane. And when food is ingested, it becomes part of your body of consciousness. If the food we eat is artificially modified, poisoned or raised in an environment of fear and stress, we will take on that same energy simply by putting it into our body. What's amazing about this is that this is where many of our cravings actually come from. It's not necessarily that we, as in our souls, want that cheeseburger, but that the microorganisms that live inside us are hungry for a particular chemical combination of salt, sugar and fat, and are emitting signals to our bodies that asks us to keep eating those foods. But if we create the opportunity for ourselves to cleanse our bodies, such as through fasting or eating differently or even plant medicine, we clear out those microorganisms, and over time, the cravings we have change naturally as a result. We have this incredible ability to adapt. Our bodies do it on a daily basis. If we have grown up eating unhealthy foods, our bodies become used to this diet and learn to make it work. However, just because we can survive this way does not mean we are thriving. To add to this more, we must take into consideration that in addition to what you eat, we must also be mindful of how we eat. There is a practice known as mindful eating, which is slowly eating, chewing thoroughly, taking time to appreciate the texture and flavor of your food. A great article published by Psychology Today about mindful eating says, it helps us to become aware of who in the body-heart-mind complex is hungry and how and what is best to nourish it. Each of us are responsible for what we put into our bodies and we're responsible for the way that we feel as a result. When we can learn to shift our relationship with food and health, we begin to thrive. The more that we personally thrive, the greater an impact we can have on the world. Albert Einstein wrote that, a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels. What this means is that with all of the problems in the world, no amount of tinkering with these problems will create a dramatic change unless we change our own internal state first. We learn from hermeticism that our outer world reflects our inner world. The more we shift inside, the greater ability we have to create a shift in the world outside. One of the ways we do this is by recognizing that the internal and external are in constant flux. Every time you eat something, you are bringing something outside in and the energy that you receive from the thing that you ate carries into the world through your actions. So ask yourself, what am I bringing into my body today? And then, what am I putting out into the world as a result? Throughout this series, we've looked at a lot of different information regarding food, health and how to optimize our personal ecosystems to thrive in a chaotic world. With this, I thank you so much for watching. Please don't forget to leave a comment if you learned something fun. And we'll see you again soon in another Spirit Science video.