Hi ,
Last time, I shared a turning point: the moment I walked away from martial arts — not to stop moving, but to move differently. More connected. More collaborative. More aware.
That journey led me into contact improvisation, somatic awareness, and a chance to work with Aikido master Hiroshi Ikeda, who offered a movement class with no fighting — just deep principles of motion and presence.
One simple instruction:
Approach your partner (as if you were going to be conflict)
Touch forearms.
Gentle. Direct.
Skin to skin.
We repeated the motion. Over and over.
And each time, Hiroshi looked at me and said:
“The body knows.”
That phrase stuck with me.
Not as a philosophy.
As a living truth.
As I considered what he was trying to teach, I recalled a moment from my troubled adolescence.
I was in the a basketball gym. Across the courrt (as usual) from the rest of the guys.
They didn’t want much to do with me and I was a target for bullying, so I didn’t want much to do with them either.
Out of nowhere, one of the boys across the court hurled a ball at my head — one of those dumb, cruel things boys sometimes do.
I didnt see it. I was looking down, totally unaware.
Pretty sure that was the point in throwing it.
Moments before the ball hit me, someone called my name.
I looked up — only to see a fast-moving ball coming directly at face, just a couple feet away.
Something suprsing happened.
My head moved two inches to the left.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t calculate.
The ball whizzed by.
And the expressions on the guys’ faces around me? Total astonishment.
No one could believe it — including me.
The body knows.
I had all but forgetten that moment, until Hiroshi set my thoughts in this direction.
And I had another experience that reinfoced the point – dramatically.
One day in Boulder, I was walking in a park on a beautiful spring morning with my five-month-old son, Zeke.
Zeke was strapped to my chest in one of those front-facing baby carriers you see around these days.
If you’ve ever worn a backpack hiking, you know it shifts your momentum as well as your center of gravity to the back.
Well, i you’re carrying a five month old on your chest, the same is true.
You have additional momentum due to the weight, AND your center of gravity is shifted forward.
And, something they dont adverstise when they sell these front facing baby carriers – when you wear one, you can’t see your feet.
Turns out, that matters more than you might think.
I was walking one spring afternoon in one of Boulder’s great parks.
Zeke was in the carrier strapped to my chest and having a great time.
All of sudden, my toe hit a bump.
I looked down only to see Zeke and not what’s at my feet.
Turn out, the sidewalk was raised right there, so my foot hit a raised slab of concrete invisible to me due to the carrier.
OMG. I was falling forward
— fast — with my infant son strapped to my chest.
Time slowed down.
I was keenly that this moment had consequences. Serious ones.
Out of the blue – one thought rang through my entire body.
Commit.
Something in me knew (the body knows) what to do.
It was very counterintutive — a forward judo roll.
Like falling toward the ground and deciding to throw yourself toward the ground head first.
I aggressively curled my head down, threw my weight forward, and landed on the back of my shoulders- with Zeke safely tucked into center of sumersault.
Smehow, thanks to momentum and a lot of luck, I came out the other side standing.
( about 3 seconds of silence then).
People saw it happen. The park was crowded.
They rushed over. Alarmed. Concerned.
Zeke was grinning ear to ear, gleeful.
I was shaky. Grateful.
nd aware that something that could have gone very wrong, against all odds, had just gone very right.
I thought of Hiroshi.
The body knows.
So how does all this relate to mindfulness and presence and people who haven’t studied judo?
Here’s how:
- The body is always in the moment.
- The body knows.
It doesn’t obsess about “what if.”
It’s not worried about tomorrow.
It just responds. Wisely. Instinctively. Intelligently.
This isn’t just about saving the moment when you trip.
You can practice connecting to your body, in the moment, on purpose.
And that practice is immensly valuable.
This kind of deep somatic awareness can change how you:
- Speak
- Lead
- Listen
- Coach
- Connect
- Love
- Create
- Inspire
Presence begins in the body.
And when you learn to integrate that awarenes ON PURPOSE — everything changes.
If you’d like to build this kind of grounded, embodied presence — without needing martial arts or parkour — that’s the work I teach.
Let me know. Or just stay tuned.
More soon,
Stay present
– Brett