Shifting the Focus of Training from How We Look to How We FEEL with Sean Pearse
Michael Hughes
Welcome to the Gymnazo podcast where you get to peek behind the curtains of what it takes to create and run a seven figure fitness facility that ranks in the top 5% of boutique fitness studios for revenue. But to be honest, that’s the least important thing about us. Founded by me, Michael Hughes Gymnazo has created an ecosystem of services that blend performance with restoration techniques and attracts top coaches to its facility hosted by its owners, Paden, and myself and our top coaches. This podcast shares our best practices on everything, from how to build a sustainable fitness business, to how to program for maximum results to how to build a hybrid training module that’s online and in person. We have marketing secrets, movement, innovation, and breaking down trends in the industry. If you’re a fitness professional, or fitness business owner, this is where you learn how to sharpen your skills and to see maximum results.
CJ
Hey, y’all, welcome back to the Gymnazo podcast, I am your host, CJ Kobliska, the director of programming here at Gymnazo. And we’ve got another awesome guest on the show today. His name is Sean Pearse, he’s a movement generalist, he’s a movement practitioner, a coach, a barber, among many other things, and he’s a gentleman that I’ve been inspired by, gosh, for the past year, I want to say through just shares on Instagram never met him physically. But today we to have him on the show and kind of break down his practice and chat more about movement and kind of the passion behind our practices, and hopefully dive into some other fun psychedelic things as well. Going on with our movement and our practice and with our coaching. So thank you, Sean Pearse for jumping into the podcast today. Welcome on.
Sean
Thank you, CJ, awesome to be here.
CJ
How you doing this morning, man? Well, I guess evening there What time is it there?
Sean
Same time as you 130. Is it really? Yes. 130. Same time, California man, same coast. It’s been great man. It’s been a really beautiful day. I’ve got my own movement practice in I’ve coached other people. And so I feel like I’ve completed that loop of like, exploring myself looking at other people, helping them explore their own practice and that loop of taking in and then giving all this for me leads to a pretty fulfilling day. So as of now inspired to be here. I love how we get to have these conversations in this growing age of social media, where we do get to be inspired by fastly, different people by different fields by different role models. And so it’s just awesome to add to that and keep this narrative growing of what movement is what life could be. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Of course,
CJ
I’ve been really inspired by people’s posts, people shares and even conversations that I’ve been just kind of tuning into through different podcasts and IG lives and Facebook Lives, things like that. And you really stuck out because of your personal practice. It’s kind of like you have this deeper dedication on the back end that a lot of people don’t get to see. But a lot of movement practitioners understand because there’s no way you can do some of the things you do just picking up a kettlebell or a mace, or even just sitting down on the ground and flipping and a backflip and side lunges and stuff. So if you don’t mind breaking down, Sean, kind of what what does your practice currently look like? If you could put it on like a daily basis? or weekly basis? Or do you program out for like quarters? Or do you just kind of wake up in the morning and say, This is what I feel like doing today?
Sean
Yeah. Sometimes my movement practice is so much reflected in a quote that I hold really dear to my heart, and that is follow your bliss. So follow your curiosity, follow what makes you come alive. I’ve got reminders of that quote, on my Instagram page in my room. And so how my own movement practice has evolved, and how I’ve grown in different areas, different disciplines, simply, what am I really curious about? And so a while ago, and four years ago, I just made a really simple switch from what could my body look like to what could my body do? And it was just this question that changed how I saw movements itself. So what the body was capable of. And that question alone just opened up a vast universe of more possibilities. That just inspired me much more so was more intrinsically inspiring. And so it’s changed so much from month to month from year to year. But I’ll ask myself, I’ll even wake up and be like, What am I curious about? What do I feel like doing? My practice is very internally driven, in that sense, um, I wake up and I feel like I need flow. As I think we all do, I want to move in ways that aren’t rigid and aren’t linear, because maybe my day needs that or my life needs more of that quality. Some days, I wake up, and I’m like, I want to put the work in, I want to go for the reps, I want to go for almost this warrior mentality of having a mission and accomplishing it, and so much more reps. I don’t know if I’m straying away from the question, but I’m just shooting off. And so how, for me, what has served me well, is having an intention for why I do train, having some aim. And most of the time, what that looks like, is seeing someone do something, for example, a windmill on the grounds that breakdance move, I saw someone do that. And I want to be able to do that. And I was coming from like, being super interested in tricking and kettlebell stuff, but I saw something that someone did, because I want to be able to do that. And so I start breaking down the process and breaking down the milestones to be able to tackle that movement. And that’s usually the process I take in order to add to my movement, diet, or my movement repertoire. And so I see something, I’m like, Well, I want to be able to do that. And I’ll break down the different aspects of the movement. I mean, if that’s mobility gain, if that’s strength gain of some sort, and then I just go to work. What as I follow that process, which is more curiosity based, there’s so much less effort involved, I find the stuff I’m able to achieve, because it’s intrinsically inspiring, and it lights me up, by very act, me want me wanting to be able to do something that my body can’t yet do. It’s intrinsically rewarding. And so that journey to where I’m going is actually what’s inspiring instead of just the end goal itself. And so in whatever I do, and whatever I decide to improve on, or progress in, I make sure there’s an element of intentional curiosity, some that I want to do, not something that I’m preparing myself to, this person is able to do this. And so I want to be able to do that. I try and kind of dim down the ego, and let my inner like curiosity allow space for myself to really speak from a deep core and be like, What do I What does my body wants to do? How’s my soul wants to express itself in this discipline, or that discipline or this movement or this pose? And then if it’s truly inspiring, I’ll stick to it and it’s so much easier to stick to it. So let me know
CJ
when it gives us Yeah, man, it gives us a lot of a lot of places to shoot off for so number one thing I want to address is something you said actually initially, which is kind of going from this almost like focusing on aesthetics and what I look like to what it is I feel like or kind of want to do with my body? What didn’t when in your life did that start to become kind of a louder voice, it’s like hey, let’s let’s shift to now what can we do versus what can we look like because those two I think go hand in hand but one lends itself to a lot more opportunity and kind of a more of a universal approach like you can go a lot of different routes to make changes with your body but if you go just for the route of changing your body, you may get stuck in one path or a few that kind of limit your potential with how you can feel in your body not just how you look. Um, so kind of was there a certain type of training you did? Or was this something in your background that kind of shifted your sense of where you wanted to go and where you want it to be?
Sean
Yeah, beautiful question man. Appreciate that.
CJ
Hold on a second there, Sean. I think yeah, you still there. I think it froze real quick. Yeah, we’re back now buddy. We’re
Sean
back for backs. Look like versus what my body can do. When I pursue what my body can do. Your body is going to have to adapt either way. So you still get the aesthetics and still get all of the and where did it start for me? I think as a younger kid you My pursuit was to become a professional soccer player. And in school, I was always athletically gifted. And I got to a point where I started dropping my training for soccer, my specialized training for what I could do within that soccer discipline for what I could look like, I started really focusing on what I look like. And I think I very quickly realized that I was driven by something external that I could never get enough of, there’s always someone who was gonna, quote unquote, look better than me, or have a bigger chest, bigger shoulders, or whatever it was. And so I felt like I was chasing there’s always going to be a comparison game, I realized the question, What can I look like, involve a lot of comparison. And so when I started to get into kettlebells, I was that dude in a gym where everyone else was bodybuilding. And I was figuring out kettlebell is figuring out how to throw it, to clean it how to move more fluidly. And what I felt from being able to freely explore simply lift me up much more, simply gave me a lot more internal inspiration to continue moving, to continue expressing myself. And so as I progress started allowing myself to follow that curiosity, movement flow, which is a ground based explain it, a ground based flow system that introduced me to what I would now call flow state, it was very, it was only getting me out of my comfort zone was a lot of like hand movements and like fluidity, and I was used to very athletic, rigid, like, powerful movements that are very linear. And as I started exploring, more and more, how to express myself, my confidence grew so much. So my journey of movement almost mirrors my journey of confidence. And self belief is I’ve gotten in some more disciplines, I’ve been able to move in different ways. And ask myself that question, What can my body do? I’ve almost on Earth, different parts of myself, that wasn’t able to just by bodybuilding, you’re focusing on aesthetics? And so gradually to answer that question, more as a synopsis, it was gradual. But it’s been a, a slow process of reminding myself that there’s other questions I could ask myself, to actually be inspired by what I’m doing in movement. What can my body do? What is it capable of? Just simply lift me up more, and me feel better? So
CJ
thanks for sharing that man. Yeah, it’s I think it’s where a lot of coaches trainers practitioners are starting to gravitate towards in this day and age with a lot of unknowns, a lot of chaos, a lot of breakdown of kind of old traditional structures, as we’re trying to find a new kind of path in this realm of not just fitness, but healthcare and wellness itself. And mind body and spirit health and kind of understanding where each of us lie on that spectrum. Like within ourselves, our own little bubbles and your path to kind of this practice that you’re currently that I currently witness and people see from the outside in, certainly is feel like a lot more sequencing and flowing and kind of almost like I was a wrestler, so I chain wrestling, it’s putting techniques together. So you’re getting from one position to another position to another position, but it’s becomes more about the expression and the tension, and the intent that you feel within those positions that changes the game. It’s not just about the outside looking in, it’s like you’re inside reflecting back out, and people start to feel so it’s a performing art in a sense. But it’s less about the performance and more about the expression and the experience for the person that’s doing it. And that’s a lot of what I see in your practice and a lot of others that are kind of diving more into this flow state and discovering it for themselves and what it means to be in the zone, what it means or what it feels like to be there for extended periods of time and then even having tools or practices that pull you into that state much quicker, much more effectively. And even much more efficiently. You’re like I can I can rely on this piece or this movement or this practice to get me there. Though the work is almost always the same. It’s like you got to go through the state of curiosity of bit of frustration, a bit of anger and a bit of boredom to kind of play in the spectrum of, you know, in the flow state, it’s skill and its challenges. The most basic sense is, what’s your skill level in reference to what you’re doing? And then in terms of your challenge level, are you meeting those where they are? Or are you practicing? Are you doing something that’s so challenging that your skill just hasn’t leveled up yet? So now becomes very frustrating? Or are you now so far ahead that you go back to some of these basics, but you’re trying to just practice that technique, and it becomes boring, versus then asking a question of what that experience is, like, in that state of boredom, or kind of ease of movement. And I kind of find this ebb and flow in my own practice, too, that some days, it’s really easy to get there other days, it’s like, I can’t, I can’t find it. And we’re never really there all the time. But it’s the playful like, Oh, dang it, I recognize that now. I’m out of it. I gotta be back in it. Right? So I guess, David says that cameras on it changes everything, right? But it’s awesome. It’s kind of like reverse start to reflect on yourself to this, this black mirror and a sense of, why am I doing this? How am I doing this? And what am I doing? And what am I trying to create here? So I guess my next question kind of leads into when you start to to, I know it’s a gradual process, but started to kind of find that state for yourself that that playful state of flow, and ease and like continuous curiosity? What is it that works for you? What pulls you into that state? Or kind of into your expression of your practice? That’s very personal to you, if you don’t mind sharing? What do you find? are the techniques or the skills or the intentions that you lead with? Besides curiosity? Like what is it specifically maybe that somebody could take away from this to start to find it for themselves?
Sean
Yes, beautiful question. Flow is very near and dear to my heart. Does that feel when I can intentionally access what we call flow state, which is.
But how I find flow saying what it allows me to do is to truly be authentic and transparent. So like the state where my insights, what I believe who I am, can actually come forth into my physical practice, it almost becomes a dance and like, almost like a celebration of who you are at your core. And so it is challenging at times, specially when you do slap on a camera. As fun, I noticed that in my mind, I was like, it is really interesting. And I do notice that how I’ll be in flow state, and I’ll slap the camera on and I’ll kind of be pretending to be in flow sale being fake flow state. And it’s like how do you intentionally access that flow state no matter what’s going on, because flow state is an internal process, I do believe is when we can surrender to not trying. And we kind of let be there’s a spontaneity, and a effortlessness that comes from accessing the states.
It’s interesting. I found there’s a lot of different ways to flow as you found yourself different tools. You’ve been using a little, little band. And doing a lot of this sounds like Dude, that’s so cool.
CJ
It’s like nunchucks cursive coils.
Sean
Oh, cool. That’s so cool, man. You know, you get one of those. There’s so many different tools and disciplines that we can access flow. And I find flows universal amongst everything. I can be in flow state when I’m talking to you. I can mean flow state when I’m writing something when I’m driving a car, whatever it is, I think there’s a presence that you tap into. That’s really important. And there’s a mindfulness of what you’re doing, not only on the outside, but on the inside. It’s just so almost like you are literally on mushrooms, and you’re seeing the world new and everything has this new quality and you’re just exploring like a kid. So there’s this novelty that comes with flow. That is so addicting. And for me, almost the climax of my movement practice is being able to get to those states of flow. Now I’m not sure if you asked me how I I get there, the tools I use to actually get there recognized and so that if you’d like,
CJ
yeah, I guess give me there’s so many things like you said it could be in writing, it could be in driving, it could be in conversation. And I guess, for those who kind of haven’t tapped into it multiple times, you know, I haven’t found that that kind of like speed boost, or kind of that, like jumpstart mode that like, I recognize this. Because I think there’s, there’s an aspect to recognizing it, that pulls you out of it, because you’re like, Whoa, but when you recognize it, and then you keep going along that path? I think it is. We’ve said curiosity a lot. But what that looks like, at least in my mind, is it’s it’s a continuous questioning, without getting so caught up in finding an answer. But you’re finding answers through the next question, or through the next process. So like, in, I guess we’re using a tool, for example, right now, let’s say we’re doing throwing the ropes around, like, for me, that’s kind of an easy, quick way, and I find a lot of joy in it. And it is a dance like that’s, I don’t rope flow, anything but dancing. You know, like, that’s all I want to do. It’s a specific set of like, techniques or things that you’ve practice just to get the repetitions, things that you know how to do. And you could do it while you’re talking to somebody, you could basically be multitasking and doing the thing that’s very complex, to a certain extent, without having to think about it. But then as soon as you get back into recognizing what it is that you’re doing, let’s say it’s just an underhand figure eight as basic as that isn’t the ropes. If you start to just pay attention to all the pieces that are involved in that figure eight, like, Hey, what are my hands doing? Okay, I’m gonna follow that thought, what are my elbows doing? Okay, ooh, my elbow, what do I feel now that my elbows are moving, I feel my shoulder blades, I feel my ribcage. But not only that, I’m recognizing my breathing is changing, oh, my gosh, can I change my breath while I’m doing this, as opposed to it just reacting. And through that process that can seem overwhelming when you just practice the basic piece first, which is just the movement, or just the writing itself, or just the driving like, think about when you learn to drive a car, and you have the steering wheel, you’re like, Okay, hands at 10 and two, the mirrors are set, I know where the gas pedal is, hopefully this isn’t stick because I have no idea what I’m doing. And then you go, eventually, the driving now becomes Okay, now I can I can have a conversation with somebody while I’m still staring at the road. But I can process thought I can process sound. And then you realize you have a stereo that you can change and you start to recognize you remember different stations, or you’re learning how to hook up your Bluetooth. And so all these things become very second nature that now that you’re doing it, you are actually you’re doing it without thinking about it, you’re kind of in this habitual or routine state. But as soon as you recognize that you’re in the routine state, that’s when you can jump into home, oh my gosh, there’s a lot of things happening that are beyond even my process of thought they’re just happening that then we’re able to question or see, like, when you’re driving, you’re looking at a rainbow or you’re seeing the expression of the person in the car next to you. Or you’re recognizing the sound of the music that you listen to his hitting and striking a chord and you become it’s almost like your flow states internal but you become your environment in that state to that external is what’s going on inside and they’re just in constant interaction. So like for you, if what tool you’re using or what things do you kind of like you know, you pick up a kettlebell or you pick up a mace or you go into some body flow, what are maybe some pads that you take or some intentions that you take that you know, okay, and in a few minutes, like, I’m going to get lost in this and we call that the mix like that you’re just kind of getting lost in the in the sauce, right? And then you step out and be like, oh, what what was that flavor and then you kind of step out of it and like I’m gonna try to visit that again. What is it for you? What do you do?
Sean
Beautiful Man like the way you phrase it all that it’s interesting I thought about a lot of things you were talking about that question one of the ways of actually really enjoy explaining it is this dance between the masculine and the feminine. And how this masculine let’s break it down into a discipline like movement flow, which is again ground base from the hardest discipline to actually describe, because your body is the tool right dance, yeah 100% as well, like explain stuff like I gotta use my biceps, round base. I don’t know what you call it dance. But anyways, so you have a system. You have a structured approach from what you learn individual movements, and you know the movements and it takes out dislike staccato
When you understand certain separate movements, in my mind flow becomes the effortless transition between those movements. And so when I’m doing something like a kettlebell, it’s it’s an example. And so there’s movements like the clean, and you learn the clean, you go from a the ground be, you clean it up here. And you can say that that is the, that is the movement. And just like music, music isn’t played on the notes, it’s actually played between the notes. And so it’s the energy going from A to B, that you have this flow control of, that’s making sense. And so I find, when you’re able to learn a bunch of individual movements, you’re able to naturally developed a sense of flow through the transitions of the seemingly separate movements. And I find, just like you had an example of the car and driving, we go from taking in information on a mental level, to that over repetitions and repetitions of driving the car or doing certain movement, that becomes natural body intelligence. So we go from that conscious effort of trying to learn something, we do it so many times that it becomes unconscious, and it becomes in pattern or imprinted in the body. That’s when I think we have access to flow state, because we’re able to do something without consciously thinking about it. And so it’s interesting. You mentioned some about questions I really dug in that was are we finding answers to the questions were asking? Or can we simply just live in the question? And maybe that’s an answer itself. Maybe we, we try and jump to answers. So quick. And that could be in movement? Am I doing this? Right? My not doing this right? I feel it’s so much more fulfilling and joyful. So you just have a question in mind, how fluid can I be? How beautiful can I make this individual movement? And you just, that’s it, you just live in the question, and you explore that question. And that’s what’s taken me to, I think, some of the deepest layers of my movement practice. It’s just not getting hung up on expectations of what something should or shouldn’t be. It’s just a constant exploration. We learn to love the questions themselves. And so yeah, thank you for beautiful man, I’ve been able to share this, yeah, I love being able to share this stuff. These are conversations that light me up. And I feel I’ve had a lot of these conversations lately with different people. And I feel like there’s these under layers of movements that are being on earth nowadays, and people are just beginning to pay attention. That movement is so much more than it may seem, you can offer all these holistic benefits psychologically, emotionally, mentally, and physically.
CJ
Yeah, there’s a lot of nonspecific gains and benefits that I feel like we’re living in a day and age, at least in the Western culture, that’s, I need to know the benefit before I try it. And it sets you up for an expectation that a lot of times is unrealistic, because you’re looking for that gain, when you might be gaining in a lot of other dimensions of your mental health, your physical health, and even just a spiritual understanding and understanding right, of being able to just express and say things out loud. And I think there’s a lot of power, like you said in it’s the transitions, it’s not A or B, it’s not the position, it’s what you did between those positions. It’s what happened between these notes. Because without this in between, it’s just loud noises that you can’t differentiate. It’s just one console thing. And a lot of times we’re trying to make it linear, like we need to go from A to B to C, but it could be a tau one to a star to like a shape to your, you know, you’re starting to combine a lot of these things that our body and brain know how to do like, that’s just what we’re born with this magic sauce within us that figures this stuff out. Because if it didn’t, we’d be spending every nanosecond of our day, telling ourselves to breathe, to blink, to swallow to step to reach and not just to reach but to say, hey spine, move, hate shoulder move, hey, bicep and elbow all these like you just it’s so many things that it would just create this waterfall of sound that just blinks everything else out that we can enjoy it. So I like the power in that pause and knowing that that is that is the that is life is like that is that transition. And so I mean, that’s how I kind of tried to live my life right now is, is make those things seem seamless, make the coaching feel seamless make going home and cooking dinner feel seamless and taking a shower or brushing my teeth and going to bed versus getting caught up in I have to do this, I have to do this next and kind of these routines and habits that our body becomes accustomed to and our brain becomes accustomed to that that’s then the mirror that gets reflected back into our thought of like, that’s how it has to be. But by questioning and remaining in that state of questioning, it makes me think about okay, like, the last day of our life, and we close our eyes for the final time we take that last breath is that we hope all of our questions are answered is like this general consensus, like I hope things are answered and solved. But is that really what we want? Or is that just like a kind of a bypassing of what we’re actually here to do. And I know we’re getting into like life and death and all this stuff. I don’t wanna go too crazy into this, because it’s a fun conversation. But I feel like that’s with movement too. In our practice, there’s a, there’s a birth, there’s a life, there’s a death in every single one of our days and in our practice and in our sets and reps, that it becomes so reduced to just those reps and sets that we don’t realize that there is a birth and a life and a death that goes on in every single one of those that it can go right into the next rebirth. It’s an exercise one to exercise to are those separate? Or are they one in the same? Just a different expression? It’s a different question. It’s a different sensation. So I mean, I don’t really have a question for you. But more if you have any commentary on that have have stood that questioning and how I mean, I’ve gotten overwhelmed by questioning, questioning, questioning and be like, Oh, my gosh, what’s the next question? And I didn’t even get to answer the last thing and how can you step back and get back into that state? Is there a simplified way or something to maybe recognize in your thought patterns, your process that gets you into a place that goes, like you’re a center going outside into his full sphere, versus going in a straight line that I don’t want to be in the straight line of questioning or thinking because that can be negative thoughts? That can be a negative feedback loop of when I think this thought it leads to all these other thoughts. And we get stuck in thinking that’s who we are, when it’s really just a thought pattern that we’ve been accustomed to? What kind of steps you out of that linear thinking or that routine path? Since you’ve been practicing it for so long. Now, is there something or a way to just step out of that for a moment and be like, ah, there’s other ways I could think about this or do this and I’m not going to get so caught up in that one way. For you specifically.
Sean
Yeah, beautiful. It’s kind of taken a step back and feeling when you just asked me something, it’s another thing. We
allow our bodies to ask the questions or follow the curiosity. Movement is forever going to be something we don’t fully understand. I think a lot of people are like I understand or understand this discipline. But it’s like, there are so many different layers of movement, that it’s almost It’s awe inspiring. It’s just unbelievable to really think about how much we could move our bodies a lifetime and the patterns and what is capable of so that’s a bottomless well, from which we can explore. First off spree pretty fucking cool. Yeah, I mean, talking earlier, how overwhelmed he, yeah, overwhelmed by how the body like unconsciously creates patterns, we don’t have to consciously think about where we’re doing it. Like, let’s take a moment to just appreciate and be grateful for like frickin incredibly body machines. Which is key to a thriving movement practice is realizing that being grateful for what you have instead of what you think you don’t have because you have a lot. And it’s like you can do beautiful stuff with what you have. And that actually leads me into I believe what you’re doing directing me to reflect on which is, Am I really here with my movement practice with life? Am I present? Or am I in some narrative? That is what I think should be or where I should be. And so, Benjamin hardy to dr. Man, I’ve been reading his books, he’s been really, really pivotal in the way I see life, but actually my movement practice as well. And he was defining this process, this concept called the gap in the game. And so when you are in the gap, you are away from reality, you are away from what is. And instead, you’re thinking about what should be something happened to you. And you say This shouldn’t have happened. Yet it did happen. Reality, what is, is that whatever happened just happened. And I could go on your movement, practice, whatever you just did, you did. But instead, we love to be in this place of like, well, that shouldn’t have happened, or I wanted this. And that wasn’t the way this turned out. So we create this gap with what is and what we think should be. And being in the game, is seeing what is and actually finding way to be grateful for it. And so, to try and relate this to movement. I see this a lot with comparison, or when I’m trying to learn something that I’ve seen someone else do I do it all the time I like I see you moving or I see Jared moving or Leo, or all these other people. And there’s there’s always different aspects of each individual movement practice. That is like you guys do the best. There’s always something in our movement practice that you individually are just so unique at that other people can’t help but see the gap between where they are and what this person has done. But being in the gain in that scenario, is collapsing. That comparison by seeing that it is a process. And there is a quote unquote, a to be what is not about getting there. It’s about literally putting your head down and exploring and go okay, well, what’s that first step. And mine just went down the rabbit hole. But I find it really interesting how even in my own practice, I can get out of tune of what I’m doing, I’ll be doing some, but my mind is completely somewhere else. And you get to understand and feel with bottomless well of movement. When you get present with what you’re doing. I think breathing is a great way to do that. But if you’re again, like doing the clean, there are so many intricate little layers of what makes a clean. And what makes it smooth or graceful. Or you know what energies you do want to put into it? Do you want it to be more graceful, you want it to be more warrior like and powerful. And so when we get present with what we’re doing, it’s just like there’s always something new to explore. And you comment on that, then we’ll we’ll see.
CJ
Yeah, man, there’s a lot there. The gap in the game. I haven’t heard of that referred to that way. But what we say is like Mind the Gap. Other your screen froze on me. So we call like minding the gap, which is. So where are you currently, as coaches, we ask our athletes like where are you currently in where you want to be. And we don’t focus on just getting them to where they want to be. But the process of getting there is the most important because once you get there, there’s another peak to climb. It doesn’t end there. And so if you’re always focused on that next metric, or that next, tangible gain, like that benchmark, that’s okay. But there’s no extra depth in the wanting to get there. It’s like the notice of the wanting, but the consistency in the practice and the intent to get there. Start to realize, the more you do this, like I’m gonna do this other peak and this other peak, and yeah, you’ve hit all these peaks. But that’s not who made you who you are. That’s not what made you what you are. It’s all the steps you took to get there. And you can learn from those to then climb other peaks that you never thought you’d ever climb. You saw the tall one over there, like I’m gonna go with that small one. Good. Do that small one, because those small ones lead up into this larger one. And by minding that gap, we start to understand that there there’s so many ways to get to that spot. And there’s a lot of ways that have already been built or pads that have been walked and crossed that you can walk through the same paths. But if all you’re doing is walking that path and getting to the peak getting to the summit, are you learning how to enjoy this process further or is it now just like a it’s a tiring process because you just you’re tired of getting to those points, you stopped realizing what was happening in those moments and those those blissful opportunities of just like, failing again and again and again. But in that those failures, you’re not actually failing anything, you’re just experiencing the process, we have to go to those to learn from them, just like injuries and pains, we’re not going to avoid them, if we are avoiding them, we’re probably not living our life very well, or fully and holistically, we’re probably avoiding a lot of things in our life to not get hurt, to not experience pain. But in those experiences, you come out learning something, maybe the time it takes to recover or doing something better and more fluidly. And in that it carries over again, those nonspecific gains, that it’s not about the to the B spot, it’s now what you’ve learned in those that it’s going to get you to all the rest of the alphabet, or not even the alphabet, you want to carry it over to playing music, or to talking with your child or to just cooking better, it’s like, those experiences get intertwined with everything else that we’re experiencing, that if we’re minding this gap, we’re paying attention to that gap, we start to realize the enjoyment of everything else that feels like we’re gapped in. And so something that that I like one of my mantras, that will help to help put this into kind of a more a summarized state is become completely what I am. Release what it is I am not. And to like the that can be meaning anything to anybody. But to me, every time I say that it’s a different, there’s a different response. It’s like, well, what am I? What do you mean, completely what I am? And what is it that I’m not? No. And we start to define these things, but not be so caught up in the definition, but the releasing of these definitions and these narratives that we’ve built for ourselves. And in that we are experiencing the gap of what we completely are. Which is this, this body, this mind this thing that can experience life for what it is right? And what is it? Well, it’s a lot of things, it’s whatever you define it to be, but as soon as you define it to be that one thing, realize that it can be defined infinite other ways. And so yeah, get get lost in that, right get like, I don’t even know what that means. But get lost in that mantra get lost in that thought of I’m always becoming, and I’m holding on to things that just I think that I am. But I realized I’m not I’m not my emotion, right. I’m not my the story. I’m not my past. I’m not my future. But I am all those things at one time, at any point in time. And I think we can get kind of into a circular argument here. And not really an argument. But just, well, what do we do from this. And I think it is that taking that first step, it’s just doing something that is a little bit different than your day to day, eat with your left hand. This time when you normally with your right, try cutting up the onion with your other side. Maybe you lay on your bed a little different angle, I do a lot of quirky weird things that my wife I married her for accepting me of these things. I’m weird oh man, but I love it. And so it for you play with these things, I find so much joy and like playfulness to it that I want others to do or experience that for themselves. Because I think that’s really what we’re here to do is release the things that we aren’t and become who we all are, which is this community, this, this collective, but we’re not all thinking the exact same way. We don’t all come from the same histories and we’re not all going towards the same future but we’re all a part of it and the less so how can we kind of respect those differences and those gaps and help each other find where we are all meant to be going and that’s just in the process. It’s walking the path it’s not stopping and just staying there. But saying like, Oh, What path are you on? What path Am I on? And to take little bits and pieces? And I’m not sure what Bruce Lee said but he said you know kind of take what you need from every practice and release what you don’t and then apply that to where you’re at in life.
Sean
Yeah, take what is useful release what is useless and add what is uniquely yours. Yeah. Yes, beautiful man release. What you are not become all that you are. It’s a bit uncertain why as a mantra and one to not necessarily answer but just feel into Gan like loving living to or loving, living the questions instead of having to find an answer. And I think modern society we’re not very comfortable with this idea of the unknown. of something we can’t quantify or see or experience. We have. We don’t have a there’s a relationship we need to heal with the unknown. And for me, mean life is best lived on the edge of the known and unknown thing that is the pioneering path to beyond. I can remember who I have this conversation with. Maybe it was you in a comment, but he was about pioneering, you know what it means to be a pioneer. And who is it and what happens when you are quote unquote pioneering. There’s always an element of the unknown becoming known when you are pioneering. And for me, that is where life is just full of so much magic. I think routine kills. If done excessively, there’s always a balance, you know, we need to maintain this balance of routine, and freedom. Ying Yang, and this balance just comes in, it’s a huge way of how I explained my movement practice, there’s like the working in, there’s the working out, there’s the rest, there’s the activity, there’s the movement, there’s stillness, there’s always two sides of the coins. And I think, to actually touching on when you said, to release what you are not take surrender takes going into this unknown place, because who we think we are, is who we’ve been conditioned to be, how we’ve been conditioned to think this is what my movement practice should look like? Or is this how I should look, when we release that it can be a scary place, because we’re in this void of unknown. That, to me is the baseline from which we get to create ourselves now intentionally. Once we release what we are not, we find ourselves on this white board that’s empty. And now we get to pick and choose the flavors of movement of life that we want to explore and feel into it. And so these are really beautiful thought process and meditation, I just feel okay, well, what am I not, as you say? And then you just asked yourself that question enough times, and I think it can be backed up by various spiritual practices, you know, you are not your thoughts, you’re not your emotions, but really exploring that for yourself, not intellectually understanding it. But like, just going in with all the labels, you know, I am this I am a movement generalists, and be like, what does that really mean? And we’re going into that, like, Am I just questioning, questioning, and then we end up with this blank slate, I think when we reach that place of quiet and stillness, and labeled LIS, this, to use a word that probably doesn’t exist yet to limitlessness then I think what’s happened to me from my experience is something deep inside starts to guide me. You know, when I get out of my mind out of identity, who I think I am out of ego, out of here and into the body, something else starts to guide my decisions. My movement, practice inclinations. And I think that’s where we live very much up here nowadays, with everything we intake intellectually. And there’s not a lot of like, body food, you know, there’s not a lot that’s feeding like the that, like heart, heart, stomach, you know, there’s not a lot touching our bodies as opposed to our minds, our minds get very easily stimulated. But what is it that’s truly pulling your body in different directions? And so again, bringing it back, like follow your bliss, has been something I’ve used as a guide, stone and Montra myself constantly, it changes all the time. What is your bliss, your bliss is where you feel most alive. You cannot end your day a really good friend of mine has this practice that’s so simple, yet so profound, as he calls it, your top five, top five top five notebook. And at the end of each day’s ask yourself, What were my top five from the day could be things you are grateful for. For me it would it was times where I felt most engaged, could have been a conversation could have been something I did something I ate, well, you just identify your top five for the day and then you do that long enough. You’ll start to see patterns. You’ll start to see patterns build up over time of what activities are engaging you most with life, what things you’re doing, what things you’re saying that are connecting you with who you are that are bringing you out, that you are most grateful for. So that becomes a roadmap to then what your bliss is. So you create this compass to go follow, which is your bliss. And again, it’s it’s a never answered question, you know, follow your bliss, your bliss is going to change, not to not get hung up on the answer, necessarily letting your letting your intuition kind of have more of a say.
CJ
Nice man, I like that top five. It’s a it’s a simple practice really is but journaling anything and just kind of letting that you the more you just kind of let yourself roll and kind of keep that between you like I got my own journal, my diary, right? Half the stuff doesn’t make any sense. It’s just pictures and doodles and stuff. I look back, I’m like, oh, that doodle has become something so much more in my life. And I don’t know how to words for it. It’s just an experiment expression. You touched on something on routine and how routine is a killer. And I want to break that down a little bit just on kind of how I see it, too. And maybe you have some thoughts on it. But I’ve been noticing points in my day. And my week that feels so routine that I’m just not there. Like my body is like automated, it’s a drone. And since since recognizing that I’ve attempted to shift my routines, to rituals, to really be involved with what I’m doing some simple things like doing the dishes, taking the trash out, taking the dogs for a walk, or run, feeding them getting ready for work in the morning drinking coffee, like whatever the thing is that I noticed patterns of this is just I wake up, this is what I do, or before I go to bed, it’s what I do, or during the middle of the day, or when something happens. This is just how my body reacts. And shifting that reaction to a response. And then when I say ritual, something that means so much more to me Smith’s intentional, like I am doing this thing. And then asking like, why am I doing this thing? Well, it has to be done. But then getting beyond the, it has to be done like a chore and saying, like I have the opportunity to do this thing. And I can, I can, I’m gonna do this dishes with some lunges and some balance and some music playing or mix it up a little bit, not just for the sake of making it or bringing in variety, but for the sake of really doing it and doing the thing that I am actually doing. Right, it seems like a silly thing to say. But think about when you know the times that you do the dishes, and you’re like, I just want to do get to the next thing or I’m too tired to do this or whatever. But then saying like, I’m too tired to do this and admitting it and going, I am doing the dishes, I just had a lovely meal, I have dishes to use, how that shifted my mindset, my practice and my movement to it’s like, I’m not just, I just have to get my hour workout for the day, some days, I might end up moving for three hours, some days, I might move intentionally for 20 minutes, sometimes it’s five minutes at a time for multiple times a day. But whatever it is, it’s a ritual of the thing that I’m doing. So that I’m there and shifted how I started to film myself to like when I’m doing throwing stuff on Instagram, like the reason it’s shared is because I want people to see my practice, I want them to be inspired and to see the parts. And then I’m being consistent. Not that I’m saying this, but I’m actually practicing what I’m preaching, you know, and these movements and these kinds of daily posts, or every few days, I’ll miss a post or something. But the ritual of posting for the intent to just continue to share in the consistency of my practice how that’s shifted my state of not trying to make things perfect, not just posting something to post something, but to there’s always a deeper layer, that there’s always something deeper that somebody can catch on to or to sense or like you see a video now if somebody’s doing something like I can do that, I maybe can’t do it as well. But that’s not the point. I just I’m gonna try that thing. And so try to take this back to full circle and your rituals and routines. When you go to move and you’re processing somebody’s doing a movement that looks like it’s so routine for them or so natural. That’s just the thing that they do. You know, I’m thinking of like, even xscape seeing people skateboard and bike and scooter, I’m like how the hell are you moving with that tool so effortlessly and gracefully? to emulate that, I guess what is that framework of things that you reflect back on maybe in your movement practice or when you see others move? That then you’re able to process what it is that you’re seeing on a less routine basis, but more on a ritual of like analyzing game film, analyzing film and going, what is it that they’re doing that I’m seeing that I cannot do by not getting lost? And I can’t do this getting lost in that what is it that it’s going to take for me to do something along this line or experience something similar? So I gets two part question. Like what are some daily rituals or weekly rituals, monthly rituals, things that you do that you feel you’re consistent with? And then other thing is like what’s the framework that you’re referring back to? And let me pull the share mind to if that helps enough, but let’s go ahead and go for Sean Maybe your daily or weekly rituals
Sean
are sweet. I was not mistaken. There was a question on how I can I break down someone else’s, let’s say movements that have become so routine have become so effortless for them? And then what are some rituals or routines that I have? Was would they for anything in particular?
CJ
Not necessarily. But yeah, just kind of in general. Yeah, you’re a mover, sure. But like, you still have a life to be on movement.
Sean
You know, 100% on accent, but actually, that brings me back. It’s interesting. He talking about doing some lunges with the dishwasher. I was watching us somebody Ito stuff. And he was saying how they was kind of diminish. potentiality meaning when you say I’m going to train training takes on this very, okay, well, you train in a gym. So you can only move or train inside the gym. But when you say movements, you’re moving 24 hours a day. And so when you look at doing the dishes as a movement, practice, it just blood, this whole world comes alive of like movement is not just confined to a space, but to everything you do and everything you can do, you can be intentional with it, and you can be engaged with it. And that was a beautiful difference I got from you between ritual and routine. Ritual is your engage. And it’s something it’s intentional. Some routines that will say some non negotiable rituals, I love to do is mourning meditation. I just find touching that place of stillness is just so important. Especially nowadays, touching that place of being here and now just has been one of the things that’s made the biggest differences in my life. Because you go from the mind level of who you think you should be what you should be doing this and that just, I’m here right now, now is enough. What do I want to do with my day, so becomes very intentional. Other rituals, I love to do cold shower, cold showers, something that just invigorates me, it’s kind of a non negotiable, it’s something that is uncomfortable. So in a world where we’ve gotten very comfortable and whether or we have almost perfect control over temperature in our homes, and even outside wearing clothing, I love getting a little taste of being intentionally uncomfortable. So having a little intentional stressor that I put on myself, Joe Rogan said like create your own horseshit. And so you can deal with the horseshit that life is inevitably going to throw at you. And so having some practice to get uncomfortable, and so we can expand that. Our elasticity with dealing with shit, and other rituals, bedtime routines, some type of journaling, some type of reflection, some type of looking at my day, and seeing where I came alive that day, maybe where I didn’t come alive. What people sparked me what people did, I feel like I couldn’t be myself around what activities allowed me to express myself type of examples of questions that just allows me to reflect and then put that into the next day. Not that I know what activities what people lights me up. How can I do more of that the next day? I guess switching gears a little bit. When I see someone do something.
I make it very evident in my mind that when I first do it, it’s not going to look the same. I think I come from an understanding of it. What I know which is when someone does something effortlessly, it always came from effort. So someone tried something over and over and over again. And then like you said, you make it seamless. You start to tie everything together, and then it becomes effortless. And it’s interesting depending on what age Is this a mais movement, or it’s something that is within my capability, strength and mobility wise, I’ll just go from it. I’ll just go for and learn. I’m very kinesthetically aware, I think as I’ve expanded my movement repertoire, in tried all these different, seemingly different disciplines and movement practices, I’ve just expanded my awareness of my body. And so it’s allowed me to look at any movement and be like, Okay, I sort of understand how this would happen, I’d have to move this way. But one of the keys for me is what is this person feeling as they’re doing this? I think that’s a key component. If you see someone doing something like a windmill, or a Tai Chi movement, or a mace moving, you’re like, What is this person feeling, because how that person’s feeling is allowing them to move in a certain way. And so almost doing the reverse is what this person is doing. But then there’s who this person is being, I think, with my movement, practice, as well as how I coach is, yes, you can do a lot of things. But who do you want to be that is then able to do all of these things coming from a place of being. And that, as I found, allows access to something along that identity. So if you’re someone who is fluid, and flows, if who you are being is fluidity, I am water, I am fluidity, you’re going to be able to do things a lot more smoothly, a lot more gracefully. And in terms of replicating what someone does, a lot of it’s trial and error, a lot of it and this is what I love to post as well, because I get irritated at myself when I do something and it’s a 30 minute video of me trying to do one movement. And then I only post five seconds of me actually doing the movement. And I’m just like, that’s not actually what I want to be seen for. Because I want to be seen almost as this person who’s that just more transparent. This is actually what it took, I think there’s so much more value in that. So I’m not adding to the narrative of comparison online. And you can always do that, again, you can’t post a 30 minute video. If you turn
CJ
it over again, anybody gonna watch a 30 minute video, because anybody unless you get hurt doing something, some crazy shit that happens, then you might watch the full 30 minutes. But yeah,
Sean
I’ve done that too. And people ask guests good laughs But it’s, it’s curiosity. I mean, I look at someone or I’ll imagine something in my mind, like a combination of movements. And I’ll be like, I want to do this. I’m not sure how yet, but I want to be able to do this. And I’ll just go through each movement and figure it out as I go with the intention to just make this movement a little more smooth. Or I get to experiment. So it’s an experimentation process as going, not a performance, so to speak. And how we use the words to define what we are doing is so, so important, you can be trying to do something that someone else has done, and there’s a right or wrong, or you can see it as it’s an experimentation, what happens when I try and do this, okay, feedback bias gonna give you feedback, Flora is going to give you feedback. And you just make these little little adaptations. And before you know it, with a lot of what I’ve done, I don’t count repetitions. Sometimes I do repetitions surely come in handy for a lot of different reasons. But I find if I’m trying to do a movement or movement combination, instead of saying, Okay, I’m going to 50 repetitions, I said, I’m going to try and do this as smoothly or as beautifully as possible. And I just get in trance with trying to do that over and over again. There are certain mais movements like the outside mill, that I could be like, I’m going to do this 50 times. But oh, I’m focusing on this one, too. Instead of how can I do this as beautifully as possible? And in my experience, and actually how I think I get so strong and what I do is that I just go for smoothness and beauty and effortlessness And I’ll do like 200 reps. without counting, I’ll just end up doing so much more because it’s more intrinsically motivating to try and make something more smooth. Or to express something as you’re moving. Say, add another couple of tangents in there. But this seems to be the type of conversation that’s coming for
CJ
your emotion. It’s it shows that it’s expresses that, that beauty that smoothness, and that, again, it’s one of things that attracted me to your practice. And following that, because I tried to feel I did my feed on on Instagram on my professional page, or I guess, my movie exploration page. So that I don’t get so caught up in one way of doing things. Like I try to keep my eye on that page compared my personal page. I don’t follow on people, but I’ll run through there and he’s gonna get lost in like, a wack stuff like, oh, man, what’s going on the algorithm here? Like, I want to also explore these other things. And so I’ll find and search out things that the algorithm is searching me out. Now. It’s finding me out now, man, it’s giving me random stuff. And I’m like, what I’ve never seen. I’ve never seen this before I did a search for it. It just showed up something like, I’ll keep reading this thing. Random is my name of the game, man. I’ll keep it. But yeah, it’s, it’s beautiful. I want to be respectful of your time, I got to pop out here pretty soon, man. But I know there’s gonna be a lot of conversations in the future, diving deeper into specific practices. And I want to, of course hear more about your coaching and how that kind of how you go about observing somebody’s movement or assessing them or, or getting them to where they want to be what that looks like. Because that’s really the conversation that I think Foster’s most growth in, in the coaching realm. It’s not about how good somebody can move. But what are those, like tough points that, you know, you lost a few clients? Because you’re trying to show too many crazy chaotic things without really understanding? Yeah, given too many cues, too many things. And wherever you find those big successes of people that may not be great movers, but they can move, they’re human, and they can progress where those big wins. So I’m looking forward to that conversation in the future man, for sure. How can people find you, Sean?
Sean
Yeah, so as of now, Instagram, working on the website with the Instagram is Sean dot Pearse. And then, as of now, that’s where I am located. That’s where all of my experimentations of movements and explorations end up. And so that’s that I love you probably find this too. But I love how Instagram has become like a movement Journal of mine. I’ve just I can look back and see my progression of seeing who I’ve become. And it’s just, it’s where I learn. I can look back as a journal. And it’s really cool. What an amazing tool.
CJ
Yeah, it’s my virtual journalism. And I often look back to what was my you know, a few years ago, it was the first post and I like, Ah, this that was cool. I never saw going this route. But man, how has it changed and it’s a lot to reflect on, you’ve got little movement or video blurbs, as opposed to just words or symbols you’ve got tangible expression and and colors and visual effects and all that fun stuff. Kind of see where you were and where you’re going. It’s pretty epic. It’s pretty epic. Cool, cool man. Shot is a blessing having you on appreciate everything you’re doing, keep it up. And I hope that everybody who’s listened to this podcast goes and checks out Sean, that’s s e a n dot p e a r s e, with the Add sign before go check him out on Instagram. You’ll be inspired and blown away, I promise. And until next time, Sean.
Sean
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Peace and Love brother.
Michael Hughes
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