Enjoy Movement
Enjoy movement.
Not in a frivolous sense, but in the sense of going deep into it. Enjoy, the way you might a meaningful conversation with a friend. Enjoy, the way we might enjoy the boundless sky and endless ocean.
Sometimes it seems we forget how to enjoy. We turn enjoyment into something else, a distraction or a time to sleep. We wonder if something is missing.
Enjoyment means to come face to face with the fullness of that which is enjoyed. Maybe that requires a certain effort on our part; maybe that effort is entirely worth it.
Where should you feel a stretch?
Where should you feel a “stretch”? There’s not a specific place to feel a stretch. This clip explains why… and what to focus on instead.
Thailand Intensive With Ido Portal (May 2024)
It was something special, as usual. Every day started at 7 AM, and finished at 10PM, and between those hours we worked ON movement THROUGH movements, and wrestled our way through mazes, labyrinths, and allegories.
Ido’s class was, amongst other things, a brutal awakening of what work ethic looks like, a study of models of recalibration, a course in upgrading how we manage the body, and a practice of structure. It provided examples of how to work on a technique to get more than the technique - but to draw from it something far more precious than the technique.
Odelia’s class was a journey below the surface of techniques, and into the hidden depths of ground work. The treasure that was offered there: how to create new relationships within the body. This exploration of intra-corporal organization percolates upwards to the surface of techniques, but at the same time creates a layer of freedom in movement than no accumulation of techniques can provide.
Some other fun things that came up along the way…
the shocking inefficiencies of how we use various sources of energy - from the psychological, to the caloric, to the respiratory, and of course the contractile.
how to engage work beyond the reps, using the cognitive faculty in THE RIGHT way (and not for the sake of escapism)
developing ourselves in a balanced way, with a proper relationship between the aspects we develop
And the most elusive of them all - how to get good at WHAT YOU DON’T DO. Finally, the secret formula was shared. Bad news for most: it’s nothing less than 24/7 practice. But of course, that’s the best news of all.
Week in Photos: April 10, 2024
1. That feeling when you finish the last set of the pre-class conditioning workout (before remembering that class is about to start)
2. Managing space and structure
3. When you activate the glute chakra doing back hyperextensions
4. Straight arm pulling strength meets compression mobility
5. Giddyup
6. Dirty feet, clean soul
7. Gathering before the first rep
8. Eye of the storm, calm focus amidst the tsunami
9. Dear diary…
10. Coffee, amazing people, geeking out on movement science.
Ido Portal’s 10-part lecture series
Yesterday concluded Ido Portal‘s 10-part lecture series covering cultural and evolutionary origins of movement, the neurophysiological basis of movement and adaptability, as well as a precious lecture on how to examine things from many perspectives.
Such experiences give us the opportunity to do something which is lost in our time - to ponder and work with concepts, letting the mind wrestle with something that doesn’t yield at first impact, and to do it with guidance and feedback.
And what do we get for this legwork? Cleansing the perspective. It can be elusive to see how a conceptual grasp of the evolution of movement is beneficial to a practice that happens here and now. The “benefit” is all the more magnificent for that subtlety: what is delivered is a Perspective. It’s changing the water in the fish tank for the fish, who doesn’t even realize that they’re in a fish tank, or that they are surrounded by water. What gets affected when you change the water? EVERYTHING gets affected.
“The important thing isn’t can you read music, it’s can you hear it.”
How do I feel when studying such things? It feeds the machine of awe, gratitude, and humility - when you are studying movement and the body from a specific lens, from the lens of life, evolution, adaptation… there is something downright mystical that brings the goosebumps.
Several of us are participated in Ido’s lecture series - we met and will continue to meet and discuss what we took away from these lectures.