Becoming Yourself: Movement & Meaning with Jozef Frucek of Fighting Monkey
Why does it take us so long to be ourselves?
How can a movement practice bring us a deeper understanding of how we engage in the world around us?
In this episode I talk with Jozef Frucek, co-founder of Fighting Monkey practice, about the big questions that link movement and life. Along the way we explore communication and creativity, autonomy and play, and much more.
This is a favorite of mine, and I hope you learn as much from this conversation as I did.
Listen on Soundcloud:
Show Notes:
What is the Fighting Monkey practice and where did it come from? [1:00]
What do you do when there’s no knowledge available [6:35]
The value of communication [8:25]
How to prioritize and organize our training (and the biggest challenge in doing so) [11:05]
Using feedback to increase your capacity (in your practice and life) [14:55]
Types of movement situations this practice is composed of [20:00]
Cultivating collaboration in your practice [25:40]
The difference between creativity and originality [30:30]
How does someone begin to explore and develop their own body of knowledge [31:30]
Becoming and being who you really are [34:15]
The richest thing in Jozef’s life right now [38:50]
How to learn more about Fighting Monkey [40:40]
Select Nuggets:
“But we instead are very interested in how conflicting ideas come together, how the science would combine with the art, and how they even complete each other.” - Jozef
“We can do so much more by combining than saying this is right and this is wrong.” - Jozef
“I think the core and essence is, ‘Can you practice, build, and cultivate in you more interest in life? Can you cultivate more happiness? Or whatever interpretation would be, but can you be more interested? Can you be more searching and hungry for living?’ And that is the ultimate task of the practice. It’s not to have bigger muscles or to show off your amazing skills but it’s getting a certain exchange within which you are, you wake up in the morning and you would be able to embrace whatever would come your way, whatever challenge that would be.” - Jozef
“My role as your educator, as someone who is leading the research, is to offer you to clean up the idea is such a way that you know where to find your own stone from which you can sculpt your own idea. So I give you the stone, I give you the chisel, I give you the hammer, and you slowly learn how to cultivate and manipulate your surroundings so you can literally sculpt your inner landscape of your brain, your neurobiology, your neuromuscular connection, skeletomuscular system.” - Jozef