Transcript
Speaker: So let's imagine, let's use the metaphor four that you would start looking at yourself as soil. Have you been lacking sunlight for years?
Speaker: Have you been lacking direct contact with the ground through your bare feet? All these are elements of regeneration of the, let's say, the biological soil.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Regenerative Design Podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker: Are you a person that cares about your environment and our planet that wants to leave the planet to our children to be something that we can be truly proud of, to enjoy for many generations to come?
Speaker: But are you also a person that believes we can do all of this and do good in business? I have really good news for you. You're here listening to the podcast that is all about making our planet better place and making your business more successful.
Speaker: Enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Regenerative Design Podcast with your host Mathieu. And today we have another great guest. His name is Erwan LeCour and Erwan is mostly known as the founder of MoveNet, Movement Naturel, if we say it correctly in in French.
Speaker: And Erwan is born in France but moved to the US and became a ah a leader in the space of moving the body in a natural way and he's now working on other fields pretty much everything around regenerating the body and and I'm ahm super excited to talk about that it's a little bit maybe off topic from regenerating the world but we are as a human race, also part of nature.
Speaker: So we need to take care of our own bodies too. um So yeah, I'm very excited to have you, Erwin. How are you doing today? I'm doing wonderful. How are you doing? I'm great. Yeah. Awesome to have you here.
Speaker: Yeah, my pleasure. So, yeah, let's let's dive right in. I'd love to hear from you. Like, how did you get into this whole space of of natural movement and and bread work? Like, were your parents ah yoga teachers and they got you into all of that or How did it happen? so No, there were not yoga teachers. Actually, I don't do yoga. okay I mean, it's a wonderful practice, but it's not my lineage. my lineage it's How did I get into that space?
Speaker: Well, I must say I somehow created that space because back in the days, ah we're talking about 20 years ago, the concept of natural movement did not even exist.
Speaker: Wow. So it was just gym training and that's it. So calisthenics was starting to show to the natural movement, the idea of, hey, we can ah become fit by training the natural movement abilities that we all have as human beings.
Speaker: climbing, jumping, balancing, all of that. There are many more, by the way. um And it was nowhere to be found, nowhere to be, it was not taught. You wouldn't find an article in any fitness magazine about it. You wouldn't find videos about it. You wouldn't find ah nothing, nothing about it.
Speaker: And So if let's call it a space. Well, I was in that space since birth and so were you and so is everybody, right? We're in that space. What's the space? We're on Earth, planet Earth.
Speaker: There's lands, rivers, trees, nature. It's all there. Some of us are lucky to grow up within that natural of those natural environments. There are different types, but basically it's its nature.
Speaker: Some others are not. Grew up in apartments, in cities, and with without much access to of those natural environments. But what we all share, what we are all born with, is that innate, let's call it a program, evolutionary, biologically natural program of moving naturally. mean In other words, if you look at any animal baby.
Speaker: They start moving. And they move in the ways that their species have the move. So of the baby guinea pigs, you know, they they move like little little baby guinea pigs. And it's not the same as baby dolphins, not the same as baby snakes or baby birds.
Speaker: right So every species has their own ways of moving naturally you for their survival in the natural environment where that species live.
Speaker: In the sky, on trees, on land, underground, in the ocean, wherever that is. What about us human beings? As if, oh no, we're too different, we're special. We don't have that.
Speaker: Of course we do.
Speaker: And we see in babies, and in young in toddlers, in young in infants, in young children. We see it and as little kids anywhere in Africa, in Asia, in Europe, in America,
Speaker: as these kids start to grow stronger and move with more intensity and then they start to stand and they start to run and jump and they move on all fours and they hang and climb and they throw things and catch things and carry things and they do all that's the program that's the original fitness really program so that's the space But like I said, Matthew, matthew matthew you that space exists
Speaker: in mankind. but did not exist as a, let's say, as a like online trend, social trend, you know what I mean? There was no name for it, no method for it, no program for it, no certification, no teaching, no protocol, no method, nothing. It was invisible.
Speaker: It was not even something considered to be normal to do for fitness. Like what are you talking about, like jumping? and Yes, as a sport, specialized sports, you jump,
Speaker: as part of athletics, you run as far as, every, all of these natural movements have been hyper specialized, it specialized sports.
Speaker: But the idea of one unified practice, which doesn't need to be unified in the first place, because you only need to unify something that has been separated and isolated, right? Like mixed martial arts.
Speaker: Why would you need to mix martial arts? Well, because they were dissociated and specialized. So now you need to mix them. Bring them back. but But we human beings are born with the whole scope, the whole entire spectrum or range of natural movement abilities that are human natural movement abilities. All right. So that's the space.
Speaker: It did not exist. Let's say he didn't have that social recognition that it has now because, well, ah that wasn't the case. I ah saw that and I thought this needs to be fixed. That's that's a prejudice. That's not normal.
Speaker: There should be a name. There should be a ah at least a recognition. People should be able to be like, oh, that practice, I've heard of it or I've seen it or I've tried it and I like it. And it's great to be able to move in natural ways and to see it as a proper, very effective way of getting fit and physically capable.
Speaker: Yeah, that's incredible how you do that because I feel that I'd love to ask a few more questions around that. But yeah, I see that it's so important that just like in my work in our, like I work with farming, and with land development, with um gardens it's also become so combat but compartmentalized and put into different silos like oh this is how you want to do one thing that's how you do something else and then we put a lot of chemicals in it so that it works um and and that creates a lot of problems especially now with climate change and and i'm curious to see from your perspective like
Speaker: Do you see the link between, let's say, the industrial revolution that created a bunch of problems ah for the environment and how it also affects our personal life?
Speaker: um Look, I'm i'm not... I'm not knowledgeable in the field that you are knowledgeable in and that your audience is knowledgeable in.
Speaker: What I understand is it's about regenerating lens that have been basically degenerated, that have been exhausted, like super compact.
Speaker: dirt soil very compact that just cannot absorb nutrients or light or water and things like that so they cannot they've lost their fertility they've lost their their vitality their ability to to produce life basically because they're they're lacking nutri nutrients and all of that i understand that So what I can do is to draw a parallel between that, how the land, how the soils have been treated, either
Speaker: exploited, overexploited, overexhausted, or, and then neglected. um And what we've done to our own bodies.
Speaker: as a species, generally speaking, or individually. So let's imagine, let's use the metaphor that you would start looking at yourself as soil.
Speaker: isn And what has been, what have you, what have you been through, basically? Have you been lacking sunlight for years?
Speaker: Have you been lacking direct contact with the ground through your bare feet? Have you been lacking proper food, local seasonal rich rich in nutrients, etc. Well, not none not industrial food.
Speaker: Have you been lacking basically the elements of environment, ground, exposure to nature, to all aspects of nature, when the wind, the the rain, ah the different terrains, then the food, etc.?
Speaker: And if yes, if you've been deficient in all these sources of energy, what are you doing to recuperate your vitality?
Speaker: are you Are you getting in the sun? Are you taking off your shoes? Are you walking on a on on the land, on the grass, on the sand? Are you going into the ocean? Are you climbing the mountains? Are you putting some horizon in your in your field of vision instead of just walls, including digital walls, the screens that are just walls?
Speaker: Or are you seeing far? Because that feels you know that fuels the the the brain and fuels the soul too. All these are elements of... regeneration of the, let's say, the the biological soil that is human being body.
Speaker: yeah And then you have the behavior. And the behavior also matters. And here's why. what what's What I mean by behavior is most importantly the movement, your movement every day from the moment you wake up till the moment you go to bed.
Speaker: And why does that matter? Well, because we're not plants.
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Speaker: The soil the soal metaphor is limited because a plant, because there's that association obviously between land, soil and plant and life and whatever grows on it, fruits and you know vegetables and grass and fungi, and whatever that is,
Speaker: um
Speaker: they have to be basically lucky. What I mean is that either they are naturally exposed to perfect conditions or to suboptimal conditions. So, for instance, if it starts to be really hot and sunny all the time, then some species disappear. Other species are going to thrive because they're better adapted, etc. It's natural selection.
Speaker: But let's say if you take of some land and you grow things, well, then whatever plants... you taking care of, hopefully, you know what they need, you know what to how to feed them. And ah let's say if it's in indoors plant, hopefully, you know how much light exposure they need, how much water they need, not too much water, or not too little water, not too much sun, et cetera, et cetera, right?
Speaker: Okay, so those are environmental variables. And the p plants themselves cannot really control that. We can. We can decide if we are going outside or if we stay inside. We can decide if we are going to be in nature or in artificial environments. We can decide if we're going to feed ourselves with industrial food or with local organic seasonal food.
Speaker: Wow. What a benefit. Right. So it's it's amazing that we have that kind of freedom, that kind of... and that kind of knowledge of what we need, but also the ability to go get it. Plants can go get it. If a plant is in the shade when it is light, it cannot move unless it's transplanted. quite So the question is, are we taking care of ourselves the same way we would, for our health and well-being, the same way we would take care of the soil and the plants that are meant to live
Speaker: on and in that soil. that But then I was talking about the behavior and the behavior is the movement, the natural movement. Because we if you just sit on the chair outside, that's better than if you are sitting on the same chair indoors all the time.
Speaker: yeah But what's really missing, again, you are not a plant in a pot. You're a human being, you're an animal type of creature. You are meant to move, not all the time, not in all ways, but look at, um i don't know, cows.
Speaker: If you keep cows in a small enclosure, they could they're gonna be really unhappy, they're gonna be stressed out, they're going to be they're going to become basically depressed.
Speaker: And so what we what most people don't realize, and maybe that's an invite invitation, like a reflection for for you, for your audience, is how much movement do you produce on a day-to-day basis?
Speaker: How frequent is your movement? How but varied is your movement? How natural is your movement? And if you realize that all you do is to stand up, walk a few steps to the next seat,
Speaker: every day and not do much more than that, then a lot is missing. Basically, that's what I called a movement poor lifestyle. And if your movement is poor, then your soil, your body, the connective tissues, all of that, they're not going to be optimally healthy, and they need regeneration.
Speaker: Nice. I love that. there's There's a few things that I want to ah become onto is that in fact, there you say you beautifully made the parallel between the soil and our human health.
Speaker: But I know that there is actually a direct connection to the health of the soil and our human health because um it it has to do with microorganisms. So in the soil there is a certain types of microorganisms that help plants to be healthy and if we are in touch with that healthy soil it's proven that our skin can absorb those microorganisms and it improves our gut health and our brain and obviously gut to brain health connection.
Speaker: That's why if people work in in the land, in a garden, immediately you will feel ah like yeah elevated. Yeah. like if Someone told me at once, like, if you have problems in your life, go work in the garden and or and you'll find answers is what she says. And it's true because you, it immediately regenerates you. Obviously you want to do a variety of different things to, like you said, or what you're doing.
Speaker: And as you were explaining this whole concept, well, the whole work that you do, I just saw a beautiful vision of how we could even together create like a It could be a movement center with a regenerative farm, with hospitality, with people living.
Speaker: And we we create all these crazy um like movement park with obviously trees, natural elements, and inside offices and outdoor offices. That's okay, no problem.
Speaker: And then we create this whole... and and then we create like this whole ecosystem of how in a in a way we continue to have all the modern um tools that we have today.
Speaker: But we combine it with ah going back to kind of our roots because I believe we don't have to compromise and like, oh, we don't have to go back to live in the jungle.
Speaker: ah That's cool. You can do that if you want to. but But we have so many other cool stuff in in technology. So I believe we can merge those two worlds and create like an amazing regenerative living working environment.
Speaker: yeah I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Have you thought of creating such center of, let's call it center of regeneration? um Yes, I have multiple times, but then ah um life ah pulls you in diverse directions and you need to make choices. so I have children that are barely teenagers and the management of companies and the writing of books and and training for a another attempt at breaking the US national record in static apnea, which is one of the things that I'm having fun doing.
Speaker: So... Wow, what's your current record? it's 7 29. seven minutes 29 seconds yeah but it's been beat um recently so i have to go get it again but seven minutes but my point is uh you know you've got um would love to do that and it's still in my in my idea and i'm actually thinking of because i mean i mean i mean the you in the united states santa fe new mexico so i was thinking of el salvador that's really moving in the right direction so i'm not moving really on the european side at the moment oh my god love
Speaker: I love that you're bringing that up because actually i was ah I've been following El Salvador on the sideline. how What an amazing leadership they have and yeah all the great decisions they are making. it's It's the only world leader or I could say one of the few, if not the only world leader that is actually doing what a great leader should be doing.
Speaker: so and and and And in my podcast a couple of episodes ago, I interviewed Alan Savory. who's he's If you haven't heard of him, he pretty much he created a TED talk about how cows are actually good for the environment.
Speaker: And it went crazy viral and and people some people believe in other things that he's crazy, but I believe that he's is's definitely true. And he said the the condition of our climate and the world is in such a dire situation. that We are losing biodiversity at an alarming loss. I heard that in the U.S. bees are like declining like crazy in the last year.
Speaker: So there's limited amount of time. And he says the only way we can solve these types of issues is that one world leader stands up. and applies the the principles of regeneration both on the body and and in a bigger scheme.
Speaker: Yeah. I think the leader of El Salvador would be the perfect person. You know, you so I've been there a few times. I'm going back there before the end of the year. and so I happened to be front with one of the brothers of the president there. Oh my God.
Speaker: And they are really they are they really mean that idea of ah Noah's Ark. Oh, yeah. they mean it not metaphorically.
Speaker: They mean it religiously. They mean it in know in a spiritual way. And they they do believe that if the the global system crumbles, El Salvador will stay, will have the the autonomy, the infrastructures, the the system in place.
Speaker: Because the way it's led is without corruption. The way it's led is really based on principles, moral principles, what people want, what people need, safety, education, and and so forth.
Speaker: And it's absolutely remarkable what this administration has been doing. Yeah. And it's a form ah of a Renaissance, ah modern Renaissance place and movement. It's in El Salvador. It's not in the Middle East, not in France. no yeah so for the listeners who are not aware of of the whole el salvador situation could you uh in a few sentences explain what what's been happening how el salvador got from the most dangerous but place on the on the earth with more killings and more more disasters happening to one of the safe well actually the safest place in in the americas uh yeah well
Speaker: you need a government that is strong and it takes action. um And so the first step they took, there are two actually. One was to almost overnight in prison thousands of thugs, thousands of gang members that were terrorizing the population, wrecking them and murdering people, etc.
Speaker: yeah with their tattoos and everything. They just you write them put them in jail. That's it done. And almost overnight, the country became way safer. And the they still catch some of them sometimes. but um And the second one was to get rid of corrupt judges.
Speaker: those that are going to use the law against ah government not because of so-called os democratic no it's because they are actually working for private interests um to to prevent a government from doing what needs to be done to restore a country mm-hmm so Yes, um El Salvador has become one of the... ah it's actually is the safest country, not just in Latin America, not just in the... It's actually one of the safest countries in the world now.
Speaker: Wow, that's incredible. So it just shows it's possible. From the worst to the best in a couple of years. That's incredible. It's hard to believe. If only governments were to stop bullshitting people yeah and do the right thing.
Speaker: But for that, you need morality. And to be honest, it's not a leftist type of morality. It's not a socialist, communist morality. It's just morality. It just doesn't need a color. It doesn't need a... um doesn't need a doctrine, doesn't it's it's a morality. Morality is not based on the political doctrine, it's based on principles.
Speaker: Those principles are universal and they are timeless. So he says two things that are great. He says, I did not imprison thousands of ah gang members. I liberated millions of people well from the tyranny of of those gang members and he says those who spare the walls sacrifice the sheeps so basically if you're going to be like oh no poor gang members what about their childhood what about this what about that who cares they are gang members they're like killers that all of them have at least killed at least one person
Speaker: Who wants a society where where you're going to think about their well-being first, but not the well-being of all the people that they have murdered, raped, abused, stolen from, and that they're keeping in fear and with a complete inability to get out of their situation, for instance, starting a business and thrive?
Speaker: Mm-hmm. in order to implement such policies you need to have this kind of morality and again if you ask people from everywhere and anywhere and you were to show them okay here's what they did in el salvador this these are the principles they operate from and this is what they achieved 90 of people i mean most people who are not actually regardless of political ideas, would say, oh, I would sign up for that. Those are the outcomes. i would sign up for that. Oh, yeah. I think it's more like 99.9% of people.
Speaker: people it's actually It is actually revolutionary. It's actually what people want. Except yes it's not labeled, oh, well, it's a revolution for the people, but the people, whatever. No, it's just just a government that is moral, there's principles,
Speaker: that is effective and does the right thing and has no corruption. That's it.
Speaker: the The guy actually, the the the president actually audited all his government, all the ministers, everybody got audited to see that they were getting some some you know some some money, if there was any form of corruption.
Speaker: Yeah. That's incredible. like that's That ah gives me a lot of hope that ah strong leadership can can reverse damage almost instantly.
Speaker: like yeah That's just a beautiful story. So we need to to look at that too, is that we want to regenerate the land, we want to regenerate the people, we want to regenerate the the earth. we wanted We could have a paradise on earth.
Speaker: um But who is at the moment delivering? What country? Singapore has always been great.
Speaker: ah Poland is doing a fantastic job. It's now their economy is more powerful than the UK. Hmm. um and El Salvador is doing phenomenal for such a small country.
Speaker: It's absolutely remarkable. So ask yourself, what ah what matters? Is it some kind of loyalty to some kind of like old romantic idea of like a a revolution, whatever?
Speaker: some socialist idea of some stuff that has been tried multiple times and never worked and failed people and brought them to misery and millions of people died. And you still want to say, well, that's not real socialism. Then what is real socialism?
Speaker: Or one country, will just look at it, see what they're doing without your bias and and see, oh, wow. It works and it worked in a very short amount of time. It didn't take 20 years, didn't take 10 years, didn't even take five years.
Speaker: That's incredible. And it started with removing the fogs, removing the corrupted judges and politicians and and getting things clean and having everybody on board and bringing results to the people.
Speaker: And in the end, what matters the most. Like you have 90% of people in El Salvador that support their president. This is not a fake made up number by some kind of dictatorship in a banana republic somewhere in Africa. It's not.
Speaker: It's literal. It's fact. Yeah. Yeah, it's such an incredible story. And yeah I've seen some of like the the transformations of the country, even in public space and green space. And there's a ah bunch of videos that the president puts out showing like how it was before and how it's today. And it's incredible in five years what he's accomplished. like I used to work in in Germany. And for us to get approvals to start making changes, that would already take five years.
Speaker: And he's designed and done the work within five years. site So the interesting thing about that country is that you have all the people who acknowledge results, the results knowledge the methods and how effective they are and admire the work that has been achieved.
Speaker: And then you have all the people who had a different idea of you know what a perfect society and politics should be and hate it because... none of their historical example could ever achieved achieve what is being achieved in El Salvador.
Speaker: So it contradicts their doctrine and their whatever their expectations. It's just they have zero example that ever worked in history about the system they claim is the best ideal system for the people.
Speaker: zero effective example, none that ever worked and not only didn't work, it brought again, it brought poverty, misery, and lots of death to whatever country tried to implement those policies.
Speaker: And now you have one country that is approaching things differently and in a very short amount of time have absolutely remarkable results.
Speaker: and they're still going to deny that, oh, that that actually does work. That seems to be the proof of work. Because so these people don't care about proof of work.
Speaker: They don't. They care about some romantic idea of what's the ideal, the revolutionary thing and all. Like, stop. Look at what works. It's like if you were to work the land,
Speaker: with some approach that actually seems to be ideal and perfect and then in the end you massacre the land every single time yeah and you keep claiming that no, it's it's because it was not the real regeneration.
Speaker: That was just the real regeneration would be like this and like that basically exactly what you already been trying several times and murder the land. But you still going to claim that it's the approach.
Speaker: And then that one guy somewhere does it the regeneration is perfect it's just ah not perfect but ideal it's remarkable it's fast it works and everything you still say well no it's just not the right way that's it period like whatever you have in your mind right now about that like just drop it just drop it stop being a child in your mind stop being a hopeless romantic about
Speaker: you know uh ideas and existential like drop whatever you believed in before philosophy because here's what what will stay the heart condition means your idea of a better world is real and must be acknowledged your idea of an ideal world that works for everybody or most people that creates health, health of people, health of society, health of the land, opportunities, etc.
Speaker: I get it because I share it. yeah um That's what every healthy person wants. That's the expectation and that's the the mindset of the heart set.
Speaker: But how you go about that, how you think, That expectation should should happen by implementing what system or plan is where the revolution of your mind needs to happen.
Speaker: the Okay. That's it. Every time government is trying to regulate everything. art it's It's a substitute for what actual people want, local communities want, and it doesn't work.
Speaker: So it's There's probably no perfect system, but definitely at the moment there is one that works way better than any other and that's happening in El Salvador. So i would invite people to actually check it out without political bias and just be like, hey, what does it do for people actually? and what Why are they so happy?
Speaker: Oh, because they're getting this this, this, this, this and that. Oh, okay. How? Oh, because their government is doing this this this, this, this, this and that. Okay. Does it match what believe should be the ideal system? Well, maybe not.
Speaker: But does that matter? Do you want, are you partial to the process or are you partial to the outcome? That's the question. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And it's it's yeah also what Alan Saviour had told the only way to to make actual progress work is that the leaders are direct representations of of what the people want. And in all other ah governments,
Speaker: the interest of the people is not first. All political parties, their interests is the is the interest of the party. so Yes. And then it's the interest of the members.
Speaker: And only then, if at all, it's the interest of the people. So it's a system that doesn't work anymore or probably has never worked.
Speaker: But anyways, I love what you're doing and and I'm curious to understand how do you want to contribute to El Salvador with the work that you do? Is that something that you that you think about or to join the ARC?
Speaker: Yeah, we'll we'll see. We'll see in what way I can contribute. But it's the idea of joining a a place in a community of people that has that kind of energy and that kind of vision and see what it's like a lab.
Speaker: you know it's like a It's like a place where a lot can be experimented upon. And what you were talking about, a place where it could be regenerative, and but also have people on board and do retreats or activities.
Speaker: programs to educate people and training of course of all kinds um this could potentially happen in that country for instance you have a lot of volcanic land that is obviously highly fertile as you know with a lot of water with so perfect condition for once is growing it's interesting that I'm a guest on your podcast because I
Speaker: I'm very eclectical in what I'm interested in. And and so recently I did all my research on you know how how ah passion fruit can be grown and or ah cacao or vanilla and things like that on this kind of land.
Speaker: um So I had ah an actual similar project, just that we'll all see if that can be done at the same time with all my other projects. We'll see.
Speaker: I love that. Yeah, we should talk about that offline and and partner up with that because ah it's funny because my dream is actually to interview the the president of El Salvador on my podcast to bring about his leadership into the regenerative space and vice versa.
Speaker: um So, yeah, I think also that I'd love to talk about offline. But i I still want to talk a little bit more about the the current work you're doing. You said you're working on three book projects, and one which is specifically about ah breathwork.
Speaker: If I'm not mistaken, can you tell a bit more about your your journey in breathwork?
Speaker: Yeah, the the um the book will talk about... um holding the breath, breath holding, um what it does physiologically, historical aspects of it, but also what what it represents as a way for the mind to train itself. Basically how we can train the mind by training the response to the stress of holding the breath.
Speaker: in because there's a lot of talk about therapy, soma therapy, etc. But all the all the systems typically try to avoid stress, the try to have people down regulate the nervous system. So try to feel better, you know, let go of the stress.
Speaker: less work, more relaxing I do i do the opposite, I ah put people on the stress temporarily, it's it's gentle, it's mild, it's temporary, it's and it's beneficial because when you trigger that stress
Speaker: you also trigger the opportunity to choose and to train how you rep respond to the stress
Speaker: the mental, emotional, physical stress that is happening and that increases as you keep holding your breath. The neurophysiological stress keeps increasing. So that's the perfect opportunity to actually train your response like a scale.
Speaker: And then you become more emotionally stable and resilient, more mentally clear. All the the benefits that people typically seek when they do breath work or yoga and things like that
Speaker: There are benefits to all of that, but none of them actually leverage stress like a way to as a way to not just regulate your nervous system, but to recalibrate it.
Speaker: And that's the difference. Regulation is just the management of the moment. Oh, I'm feeling stressed now, let me do some breath work, some yoga, so that I ah downy i feel better.
Speaker: That's good. Actually, breath holding will do that too. As you go through an element of stress and as you do the actual intentional work of relaxing.
Speaker: Ultimately, because you train that ability to relax despite the stress. The nervous system is not just regulated, it's recalibrated.
Speaker: means it gets its baseline shifts to something more robust, that's more emotionally resilient. It takes way more for you to be feeling startled, upset, etc. Right? Okay, so the book will explain the first book will explain that.
Speaker: And I'm also writing two other books. I think that that's incredible. analytics This is so interesting. Nobody talks about I love what you pointed out. like Everyone in the world is like, or a lot of people are seeking like, oh, how can I have less stress in my life? How I can relax more, feel better, all that thought stuff. But your perspective is like, okay, stress is inevitable. It's the human experience.
Speaker: We will always be put in challenging, challenged um situations. Even if you decide not to put yourself in challenging situations, eventually you will get into a challenging situation. For example, you retrieve yourself from life and you sit on the couch all day.
Speaker: That's maybe and a safe space. Eventually you will get unhealthy or... likes It's not good. So stress, I found it very interesting. And I actually want to draw the analogy with plants because I know that ah in order for plants to grow, a level of stress is very much a needed. In fact,
Speaker: There's many, like for example, an oak tree that is in the middle of a field will live way, way, way longer because it's than a tree that is in a forest. Because every storm that it that that the tree hits, the tree actually, in in the wood, it breaks.
Speaker: There's cracks happening. And then because of those cracks, it it fixes the cracks. and the tree becomes stronger so by the next storm it can actually handle the storms better so it's because of the stress that it becomes stronger and another one is like i went to ah a guy who has like a really cool food forest and he wanted to grow goji berries in his project and he's he planted the the shrub um And yeah, so we're going to wrap up But I just wanted to say that that he planted the shrub and the shrub was growing really well, but it wasn't producing berries.
Speaker: And so after time, he said, you know what, I'm going to give it some stress. So he took his spade and he he ah cut some of the roots around the shrub and it gave the plant a ah kind of stress. And the next year it was full of berries.
Speaker: So that's just to show that there's a definite analogy to nature. Maybe something to add to your book. I'm happy to learn. That is great. oh it's It's known in every Every discipline is about creating a challenge that you then have to intentionally overcome.
Speaker: So if you play an instrument, it's the same idea.
Speaker: It's following following a certain sequence of notes at a certain exact rhythm, producing exact same or so specific sounds at a certain intensity, et cetera. All of that is it's the challenge to achieve that. You need to be very intentional.
Speaker: So in order to be able to execute on that, you need the challenge, you need your brain needs to understand what is the map to be able to achieve the outcome.
Speaker: yeah And it needs to to grow the tools to execute that, so that those tools are for the plant. It's maybe stronger, longer roots, thicker bark, wider leaves, whatever it is,
Speaker: a more complex network of whatever in the system. For the human beings, it's actually no different, because if you do workouts physically,
Speaker: then it resembles the the roots or the the branches that become either bigger or stronger, more flexible, that have fluids inside and networks that move the fluids faster, the nutrients, the medicines, all things that every living being needs, that you are a plant or animal.
Speaker: an animal but when it comes to behaviors such as the ability to remain mentally clear and emotionally composed under the stress of the hypoxic stress the stress of all I'm not breathing so I could die if I don't breathe hmm it's a very deep um potential consequence but the the adjustments are going to happen in the brain neurologically so we're still talking about
Speaker: um a biological response to it and to create new neural pathways or to reinforce existing neural pathways so that you can have for instance have more patience have more clarity those are not just ideas in the in the clouds in the air they they rely on neurons they rely on fleshly elements that are in the brain and they need to be grown.
Speaker: But in order to grow them, you need to to produce the conscious intention. yeah So when you are under stress, you have to produce the what I call the antidote.
Speaker: If you are becoming patient to breathe again, how do you have patience? you cannot have patience you need to generate the patience if you want to have it how do you generate the patience well out of your intention but your intention is only as strong as your ability to create that intention and to maintain it despite the stress so it's the stress is not finality
Speaker: It's not about abusing oneself, or punishing oneself or torturing oneself. It's about strategically leveraging intermittently stress to produce a better response.
Speaker: And once that response you've trained it, it becomes part of who you are. It's going to apply to situations of life where you could be easily stressed.
Speaker: And now your baseline is recalibrated to something more robust. So you're more tranquil, you're more com composed, you're maybe wiser, ideally.
Speaker: That's the idea. Kinder, maybe. it's That's the idea. I love that. Yeah, I think I'm a surfer, so I've i've experienced a few moments where I was very scared of not having enough breath. And it's always an interesting experience after.
Speaker: um But yeah, anyways, we're we're running out of time. i really appreciate ah you having ah coming on the show and talking about all these amazing topics. ah Yeah, if people are listening and they want to learn more about you or get in touch with you, what is the best way to to ah ah find you on social media or website?
Speaker: um um It would be to visit the websites, so the two ones for natural movement. That's going to be movnat, M-O-V-N-A-T, movnat, M-O-V-N-A-T dot com.
Speaker: For the breath holding, meditation, mind training part, it's on breathholdwork, breathholdwork.com.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah, I'll also definitely check out that second website. I wasn't aware of that, but excited to ah talk more and and see what happens with all the other work. And yeah, thank you very much for coming on.
Speaker: Thank you, Mathieu, for having me. And thanks you everybody for listening.
