Mind & Tide
Open desert mountains in South Sinai with warm evening light
About us

Most of Us Know What Stress Is.

So Why Do We So Often Lose Touch With How It Feels in Our Bodies?

Mind & Tide grew out of a personal journey to better understand stress, resilience, and recovery. Along the way, we discovered that understanding stress is not enough—we need practical ways to work with it.

The project

How Mind & Tide Came to Life

I am Silvia, and for more than ten years I have worked as a social sciences researcher. I have spent much of my career in dynamic and demanding environments, where stress, responsibility, and constant decision-making are part of everyday life. Alongside my academic work, I have spent more than a decade facilitating adult education programs, designing learning experiences that encourage people to ask uncomfortable questions, exchange perspectives, and connect with themselves and others.

And despite building my life around encounters and connections, I was carrying a significant disconnect inside myself.
Calm Red Sea coastline with mountains in the background

In 2023, while learning to dive in Dahab, my instructor asked me to relax because I was unable to descend underwater. I was surprised. At that moment, I felt calmer than I had in months. Yet my body told a different story. That experience made me realize that while I could explain what relaxation was intellectually, I did not truly know what it felt like in my body. Since then, I have been exploring different approaches to stress regulation and recovery, searching for ways to live with greater balance, calmness, and intention. Along the way, I discovered that there is no single method that works for everyone. What matters is finding practical tools that fit into real lives and real routines. Dahab became an important part of that journey. Not only because it was where this realization happened, but because the environment itself seemed to support a different way of learning and reflecting. Between the sea, the desert, and a slower rhythm of life, I found space to notice things that had remained invisible in the routines of everyday life. The combination of physical distance from daily demands and the simplicity of the environment created room for genuine reflection and change.

Calm Red Sea coastline with mountains in the background

Mind and Tide grew out of this experience.

Meet the Team

While Mind & Tide grew out of my own journey, the seminar itself brings together different perspectives and areas of expertise. To create a meaningful learning experience, I work with practitioners whose work complements the educational and reflective dimensions of the programme.

Marcus Blacker

Marcus specializes in body-based and breath-based approaches to stress regulation and has more than fifteen years of experience working with breathwork and nervous system regulation. His work combines breathwork, neurogenic relaxation methods, somatic coaching, and trauma-informed approaches to help people develop a deeper awareness of their bodies and build practical skills for self-regulation. Over the years, he has facilitated workshops, trainings, and group programmes focused on stress management, resilience, and personal development. Marcus has called Dahab home for many years and now resides in Cairo. Over the years, he has designed and facilitated numerous seminars, trainings, and learning experiences, combining place-based learning with body-oriented approaches to personal development. Living between the slower rhythms of the Sinai and the intensity of a large city has given him first-hand experience of the challenges many people face in balancing professional demands, everyday responsibilities, and personal well-being. Marcus is responsible for the practical delivery of the seminar and contributes substantially to its content and design. Through breathwork, body-based practices, guided reflection, and experiential learning, he supports participants in developing greater self-awareness and practical skills for stress regulation and recovery.

Marcus Blacker