Workshop 8 · Phase III
Meaning in Motion
Where Eastern wisdom meets Western science
Every workshop opens with a 10-minute grounding ritual — feet, three breath cycles, orientation. The same each time, so you can arrive from anywhere.
The mind-body split that has defined Western medicine since Descartes is dissolving. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio's research on patients with damaged prefrontal cortices — who could reason perfectly but make catastrophically bad decisions — demonstrated that emotion and body sensation are not interruptions to rational thought. They are its substrate. Without the body's signals, the mind cannot orient itself.
Embodied cognition — the growing field studying how the body shapes thought — confirms what movement practitioners have always known: posture influences mood, breath changes perception, gesture shapes meaning. We do not have a body. We are a body that thinks. The separation between physical practice and personal meaning is not real.
The Taoist concept of shen — spirit or consciousness — is not located in the head. Classical texts place it in the heart, in the dan tian, in the soles of the feet. It moves through the body as qi moves: not as an abstract force, but as lived experience. "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao" — meaning resists explanation but yields to direct experience. This workshop is where the whole journey acquires depth: not because anything new is added, but because the accumulated practice creates the conditions for understanding that cannot be thought, only felt.
Live on Tenerife? There's a reduced rate for residents — send me a WhatsApp and we'll work it out.
No fixed dates yet — workshops launch later this season. WhatsApp me and I'll let you know when there's a date.
WhatsApp BastiaanThis workshop stands alone — and it is part of a journey. Each of the 9 workshops carries a bridge to what comes before and after.
See all 9 workshops →