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Chapter 1: How do most people relate to their body?
We say my body betrayed me without realizing I betrayed my body before. We disrespected it in many ways and now we're here. How would you diagnose how most people are relating to their body? The body lies a lot less. It's very honest. Just listen to your body. I don't believe them. Listen to it. You're not on the right channel at all. What you hear is a lot of... corrupted data. I distrust this.
So then I searched for movement teachers. I couldn't find anyone. I met big practitioners, gurus, and I realized there is nothing here. I don't have it. I looked for someone who has it. Couldn't find. Said, okay, I'll become that person. Next realization, I can't do it.
Chapter 2: What does attention have to do with movement and practice?
And with that, I stayed. Now we can start to look at things. What we don't attend to crumbles, dies. Attention gives life. You don't attend to your child, the child will develop. Problems. Attunement. Yes. Attention replaces detention.
If people would place their attention in their shoulder for one minute, undivided attention, they will transform to such a level that... Ido Portal, it's such a pleasure to have you here. I have been loving your work for many years, seeing... The inspiring stuff you share online through podcasts and also through your movement practices over the years.
I think this conversation is going to provide a... It's just going to be a beautiful addition to a lot of the conversations we have on this show because you really are a pioneer in sharing the body as a vehicle for self-exploration and self-discovery. And we live in such a heady culture.
Chapter 3: What is the significance of admitting we don't have what we seek?
And I'm curious for you, in your words, how would you diagnose the current state of how most people in society and modern culture are relating to their body and movement? Yeah, it's a strong moment for... It's a good time for the body because it's missing the heart as well. But those three paths, let's say, they are not balanced and not pursued.
And so the current state of affairs with the body... is approached through very limited models of our physicality, of our being. A lot of it comes from exercise perspective. Very crude, very disrespectful for the human body, for what it is, for ourselves. The self, this self, the head self is
actually surprisingly a small part of the picture i believe but it hijacks a lot of the attention and of course all of our culture has been built and developed around it so it took us away and to go back is not as simple as just you know the slogans you know just listen to your body I don't believe that. Listen to me. You're not on the right channel at all.
You can listen to your body, but what you hear is a lot of corrupted data. So the first thing is to modify the model, our connection to the body. It has to be refined and made deeper in ways more sophisticated, in ways more simpler. It's not just about some kind of a car that you drive around and you get to places. It is you. You don't have a body. You are the body. The brain is In the body.
It's part of the body. And the connection to movement is that it is the vehicle, the thing that really put us here in this state. Not mathematics. That's a side effect. Not music. In the sense, all those things were involved. counting, rhythms, music. But the way that it affected us is through movement. And those are also movement realms in many ways. So the first step is education.
To realize that we don't have a proper connection to the body, which most people unfortunately realize in the point of of crisis when we say my body betrayed me without realizing I betrayed my body before so you feel in many ways we've disrespected the body not honored it in the way that it wants to be moved and used yeah I don't I don't beat myself up over it but I There is a value in remorse.
Because without it, there is no real power to change.
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Chapter 4: How can we start to reconnect with our bodies?
Declarations, but they don't last. More words. So I'd like to take that responsibility. And you've used the word correctly, we. We disrespected it in many ways and now we're here. And we can start to take personal responsibility. But it sounds like this I need to take the responsibility. We went wrong, but only I can fix it. And each one of us turning back in and being the change is the way.
And it was something instinctual for me. I just, yesterday I was in an Uber and had a conversation with the driver and he asked, what do you do? And I told him, how did you get to work with the body? And I said, because I distrust this. And in many ways, it was this instinct that I can't be trusted anymore.
And that sensation, that internal lie, that deep, deep lie beyond, underneath all the lies, the lie that we tell ourselves, the words in our head, they're rarely truth. Maybe they can't even be truth because words cannot be that truth, but they're not even simulations of truth. They're a simulacrum. They're removed from reality. They're not containers.
They're maybe pointers that by now are pointing at nothing. The body lies a lot less. It's very honest. When I move or when I move with someone, I know the truth. Or when we talk, who knows? It feels like you have an incredibly holistic understanding of the body, of the body as a doorway to explore trapped emotions, to explore self-expression.
And you have explored many different formats and modalities to add something. They all add something. And
it's much a deeper understanding than the conventional western understanding of exercise and movement and the way that we kind of live our life very much so identified with our thoughts moving through the world and view movement as something that we should do for our health maybe an hour a day you invite it as a living practice in a much deeper context so
we'll bring this down to the individual and to the practical, but there is this understanding of exercise as a form of movement. And I'm just curious, what is your analysis of that in contrast with the way that you understand movement? There are a few things here that are kind of mingling together. Movement and exercise and breaking down exercise
Part of it is movement, but the other part is practice. And now we can extract these two very powerful words, practice and movement. Now you can get rid of the exercise. So I'm really, deeply, I'm the practice person. Movement... serves practice. It is a way. It is the most, one of the most major way. One side of the equation. One side of the spectrum. The other side is stillness.
And practice is what we are here to do. Life is not for living. That's the lie. Life is for practicing. In the sense that this here is a school. That's why we're here. Or else, there is no meaning to our visiting here. We are here to discover something, to learn something, transform something, transmute something. So that informs everything that I do. Now, movement is very important.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Ido share about the importance of not understanding?
I didn't get it. That's the point. Stay there. Many times I tell people, it's like, I couldn't make sense of it. I stayed there. That was the calling. A teacher that says something is I don't understand that person. I go there. That's my, my instinct. That's my thing.
Chapter 6: How does Ido describe the relationship between tension and sensation?
And this gave me so much this approach. Tom Waits, you know, I mentioned sometimes I love Tom Waits. When I first heard Tom Waits, it was painful. I was like, I need to listen. I need to be here. I need to be in that space. It's not always the entry point is not about what I like and also not what I dislike. It's not about that. It's about I don't understand.
Sometimes it's about you dislike what you don't understand. Sometimes you more like it. It depends on certain inclinations. Also with partners. Oh, we really got along. I have no interest. Or I do this really well. I don't have interest in doing what I do well. Okay, I can do handstands well. So I stop doing that. I'm not interested. There is nothing to be gained there for me more.
I can squeeze out of the orange very little. This is a proper approach to practice that is not cultivated when we are children. And if it's cultivated, it becomes second nature. For me, I was asked a lot of questions. My mom not given answers. It was all questions. This is part of our culture as well. A culture of you have to ask the questions. You're required not to provide the answers.
Chapter 7: What practical tools does Ido recommend for body awareness?
What is the right question? So much more promising. So another way to look at the practice, to be in the question. This is the name of the area of practice. Answers don't provide a lot. Back to your conclusions. Questions are powerful. They're movement. They're sending us. And the right questions, it's not about
Answering them, it's about asking them, bringing them into the world and creating huge, powerful, I need to bring air in, I open the window and the air comes in. I don't pump it with machine. This is answering. So our education that got around, good, 10 correct answers for 10 questions, you got a mark. No, that's not in the real traditions.
that I really cultivated some of the greatest thinkers, you see just questions. Indian tradition, Jewish traditions, the Muslim tradition for a long while, all of them contain this quality. I agree that questions in many ways is the genesis of focus. They become the impetus to move our attention into different areas.
And I think worthwhile questions can spontaneously arise in a system that doesn't have as much noise as preoccupied with.
Chapter 8: How can we cultivate curiosity and playfulness in our practices?
What is your conception and understanding of the noise that's in the system internally? I've heard you mention the Webner-Fechner law. What is that for people that don't understand? Weber-Fekner is about... The Weber-Fekner physiological law is not just physiology. I allow myself the leap of faith. It is a law that crosses all stratas.
And it connects back to that, what we talked about, tension and sensation, the relationship there. Weber Fechner says that the more noise in the system, the more data in the system, the less data of a specific type, disorganized, chaotic, of course, more, the less the ability to sense differences changes. Like, for example, this movement.
There was a movement there, repetitive, back and forth, back and forth. In order for me to sense this, I need to have a certain open slate, open state of lack of tension. If I hold my arm very tight, I decrease my capacity to sense with my arm. The analogy is holding an iron bar and being blindfolded and a fly sits on it. You won't be able to detect it. But if you hold a feather, you will.
Because the feather has less this rigidity and it will transmit this vibration even of a fly. But we are the iron bar or the feather. We have this modulation that we can play with and it's very powerful. Now we get to the flip side of your prior question. Before it was about removing tension. So I offered sensation. Now I offer sensation. Sorry, before it was sensation for removal of tension.
Now I offer removal of tension for sensation. You want to know? You want to know reality? Remove that jet. Deeply relax. That's all you need to do. All the treasures will come to you. The knowledge... Knowledge is not in the books. Knowledge is not in the teachers. Knowledge is by... When I do this, when I pay attention, I decrease tension in my system.
If somebody whispers, you immediately decrease tension in the system to tune in. It's a trick that many charlatans use. Not only charlatans, also good charlatans, bad charlatans. So... This is very nice. We build something very nice here from all the different sides. We have a really strong case to modulating tension and sensing. We need to devote a lot of resources to it.
We need to be respectful of it. We mentioned it and we need to apply tools for it every day. It's not just going to the gym. It's not just about, you know, doing your yoga routine or whatever. We need to pay attention to this because paying attention is developing. Certain things are worth devoting our lives to. And these means are worth our attention. This is one of them. It will heal you.
Don't wait that you get sick, so sick that you have to do it. It might be too late. Tension and the relationship to sensation, this whole understanding can save your life. You know those scenarios, drowning or freezing to death, being stuck somewhere in the wilderness. And then there is all these crazy stories. It just happened now. They found this Sherpa in Everest. Did you see this?
This man, one of the Sherpas that were taking a... Separated from the guy. He just sat down. They were coming down. The conditions didn't allow the climb up and... The guy he was helping, the mountaineer, you know, they don't carry anything. The Sherpas are taking a fridge on their back. And he just sat down to smoke. They smoke. It's crazy. Like these people are Superman.
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