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The Jonathan Schmid Training (JST) offers process-oriented movement training for long-term development and health maintenance that follows a generalist approach.

 

In addition, our work should serve as a self-awareness and development practice,

which is about more than just increasing your own fitness.

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As a result of worldly development, we can increasingly observe mental complaints such as negative stress, imbalance and fatigue, physical complaints such as tension, pain, muscle degeneration and general restrictions of freedom of movement, as well as emotional deadening. Often the results of our lifestyle in the industrial age are "man-made" and obviously lead to a detachment from our own body as well as a feeling of discomfort, which can subsequently mean a reduced quality of life.

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Our offers address this condition and create the possibility of a healthy and sustainable design of the living environment, which is by no means a matter of course in our age. Our actions are oriented towards curiosity towards life, the gathering of experiences as well as longevity in the greatest possible form. In doing so, we follow the credo "Do more good instead of less bad".

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We understand our work as the opposite of a cargo cult, a superficial and fast-moving search for insubstantial success. Rather, we want to build a deep and lasting foundation of experience, knowledge and skills - which can promote physical, mental, emotional and social health, competence and autonomy. We want to encourage people to create a way of life that allows them to experience their own bodies, and through them the world, in a comprehensive way.

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In order to create a healthy and sustainable design of our living environment we can not only look at ourselves, but should also be in close contact with our environment and its natural habitats. We have evolved in a co-evolution and despite our partial distance from nature we still have our place in this network. Therefore, the engagement with both our own organism and the organism of nature represents an inescapable connection for us. Ecosystems are our evolutionary home, which is why - completely logically and without esoteric contortions - our health depends in large part on the health of nature. Health starts with a healthy earth, consisting of healthy plant life and a wide variety of species. Our teaching material therefore revolves around both the functioning of the body and the interest in movement possibilities and interdisciplinary connections as well as the general interest in nature and its cycles and functioning.

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The different menu items:

  • Offers - Our various offers are listed here with further descriptions

  • Dates - Upcoming seminars and other events are listed here

  • Free Content - Find videos and articles here, as well as people and groups that have inspired us, and other resources

  • Visual - Both photos and videos can be viewed here, which give a visual impression of our offers and our own practice

  • News - Here you can find the Possibility of a non-binding contact as well as a free subscription to our newsletter

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On this page follows a detailed description of the core points of the JST. You are invited to get a deeper insight into our philosophy and therefore our work, its contents and concepts and to broaden your perspective.

Philosophy & Practice

Our work deals with various questions and answers about our physical and spiritual being and life in general. Through the discovery that movement is a fantastic medium with many facets, we have realized that it is an effective lens through which we can experience life, ourselves and others. In this regard, our offerings are for anyone and everyone who has an open interest in changing themselves physically and mentally - regardless of age or physical level. We pick up each person where he/she is at the moment.

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Our thoughts, inspirations and our actions are constantly changing. Thus, what we want to convey is also subject to constant change. Working in a dynamic way means for us to constantly integrate new experiences and discard the superfluous. Although for this reason many questions remain unanswered or their answers change, some key points have emerged over the past years, the result of which is our philosophy. In this philosophy, nature, movement and one's own being represent three constants in life. Our work is based on these three pillars and relates to the human being as well as to his environment.

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In our approach, the term "movement" plays a decisive role. For us, movement means to live and life is movement. In this context, we place external and internal movement experiences in a close relationship, because they influence each other and have an impact on our life and well-being. Furthermore, the term movement in our approach stands for being active, for change, curiosity, development and an ongoing process. Movement in all its forms is an expression of aliveness in all human and worldly spheres. We want to explore these forms and use them as a tool for self-experience and development. Our body is for us the starting point, the origin of experience and development.

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"Movement is life. Without movement, life is unthinkable" - Moshé Feldenkrais​

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WHAT?

The Jonathan Schmid Training (JST) aims to create a connection between the human being and his environment and offers the possibility of a non-cultural-religious integrative and interdisciplinary life practice. The content represents an engagement with life and its questions. This is accompanied by a practice that allows us to be and explore who we are and how we are, helping us in our relationships with others and the world, but also in general processes and our existence. The practice is concerned with the development of human qualities and as such is open to all people of all cultures and faiths. The basis of this development is the cultivation of a personal and process-oriented practice that is oriented towards complexity and characterized by its diversity.

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The framework in which we explore, practice, reflect, exchange and develop is called practice. This includes being a student and thus receiving knowledge as well as teaching and thus imparting experience and knowledge. In our eyes, both enable valuable learning experiences. It is important to understand that practice is not just a form of sport, but rather a philosophical contemplation and teaching of life. A practice is meant to heal, and on many levels. It is not about people becoming more athletic and athletic, but about people becoming more human. By this is meant that it is not exclusively about what skills I acquire, but above all about getting to know and understand myself: Who am I? How do I position myself? How do I move? How do I talk to myself? How do I make decisions? How do I deal with myself and others? Etc.

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We take a life and training approach that is not tied to outcome-oriented goals, but behavior-oriented goals. In short, this means that we want to practice controlling what we do and how we do it. Goals are always an important orientation, but we should know that the way to get there will usually be different than planned and that the value of this way depends on our behavior and choices. There are few expectations, only curiosity and the desire to look further. Our practice is not about maintaining illusions.

We are about development and not the achievement of goals, although these are of value as milestones for certain steps in development. In doing so, no one is lectured by us, but taught to search for one's own truth and not only to know, but to know how.

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Under the main aspect of a physical practice and the concept of learning to learn, the aim is to create a process of change that can develop a stronger sense and perception of one's own body and mind and everything around it. This process implies not only personal responsibility and autonomy, but also freedom of choice and general quality of life, as well as the possibility to think and communicate in new creative ways. The internal structure of our practice is formed by the philosophy as well as three pillars, consisting of the physical, cognitive and caring practice. It should be mentioned that the differentiation made in the theory only serves for a comprehensible organization. In practice, however, everything is one, as Nietzsche once also characterized the basic idea of occidental philosophy.

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The physical practice represents a bidirectional connection in which the body both demonstrates and creates being. The body is the mechanism for perception, action, emotion, and relationship, among other things. It is also the most direct way to change these things: "Change your mind" is abstract; "Stand or move differently" is more concrete and therefore doable. Physical training is shaped by our interest and knowledge, and our experience in various sub-areas.

We are concerned with how we can change cognitive structures through a physical practice and vice versa. Two of the most important principles are modulating tension and relaxation and confronting emotions and feelings such as frustration or fear through movement experiences. We know that working with these principles brings about change.

In addition, we offer specific physical training with a holistic approach, integrating the fundamentals of movement, i.e. balance, posture and grounding, as well as coordination, strength, endurance and mobility (mobility). Freedom of movement on the hands or close to the floor, athletic skills as well as the movement dialogue with the environment as well as other people complete our comprehensive and efficient training and at the same time extend it to infinity.

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JST as we offer it today builds on influences from a wide variety of disciplines, forms and arts. These include Asian and Western martial arts, dance, acrobatics, parkour, yoga, gymnastics, strength, athletics, coordination, rehabilitation and health training, bodywork, and individual, ball and team sports. 

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The cognitive practice includes topics such as didactics (learning & teaching; how, what, why?), pedagogy, philosophy (asking questions & contemplation), conversation (speaking, presenting, discussing), creative making (designing, planning, building), and various cognitive tasks (logic, perception, concentration, observing, learning to learn, problem solving).

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The nourishing practice deals mainly with the care of our organism, our being and our environment. It deals with psychological as well as health issues such as sleep, nutrition, meditation, but also sociological issues and environmental influences. This part is about exploring and explaining how these things affect our lives and that they are the foundation of our well-being. Furthermore, possibilities are to be shown to find a suitable handling and a meaningful integration for oneself.

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In addition to working with ourselves, our practice also looks at how we interact with our environment as well as how we perceive things outside of ourselves. Through this broad perspective, we work to better understand and interact with the natural and animal world. This work is strongly influenced by the ecological philosophy of permaculture.

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JST does not primarily strive to become better at specific exercises or disciplines, but to serve as a self-awareness and development practice. The content here extends far beyond the physical. Aspects such as learning experiences and processes, exploration of the self, trust in one's own body or anxiety management are an integral part of our approach. Such a practice is oriented towards the search for and use of overriding principles and sets itself the task of trusting a process as well as unfolding potentials. Here we play with opposites such as structure and free space, logic and creativity as well as discipline and fun. These values are supported by didactic-methodical work. We observe, listen, copy, explore and create. We work diversely and change our perspective over and over again. We want to reflect, discuss and critically question. Equally, however, we want to simply let be and neither think nor speak.

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In summary, this path represents a practice of trust, engagement, openness and curiosity towards life.

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WHY?

Our life is a continuous process whose content changes and whose only constant is change. Without this constant change there would be no development. Development can be understood as the conquest of living spaces and describes the physical and mental maturation, which is primarily shaped by experiences and represents the core of human existence.

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In order to make our development open and forward-looking, as well as to have the necessary sensitivity to perceive experiences positively, we want to:

  • acquire physical skills that make us more sensitive, as well as provide an improved sense of body awareness and versatile movement opportunities;

  • maintain physical and mental health so that we feel comfortable and safe;

  • build community by learning new things and facing challenges together, inspiring and exchanging ideas;

  • Being useful and creative by working in and with nature and making and creating a variety of things;

  • Reflect and contemplate to stimulate critical and independent thinking and learn personal responsibility;

  • Promote sustainable actions that allow us to live healthy lives, both in relation to ourselves and to the environment and nature.

 

This involves cultivating a practice - a way of life - that gives direction to one's life and whose process enriches one's life. Short-term, superficial results and gains should give way to a sustainable and deep foundation of knowledge, experience and skills. The practice is meant to support observing, reflecting and shaping experiences. In a time when physical, mental and social activity is more and more changed by medialization, mechanization and automation of work and life activities, we experience such an offer as very valuable - both for the individual/individual and for our society as a whole.

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HOW?

If you are interested in our philosophy, our training and our support, there are several offers to get to know our practice and be a part of it.

 

At this time there is the option for Hamburg residents or people from the surrounding area to participate in a group training, which takes place three times a week in different parts of Hamburg.

More about this under Offers - Group Training.

 

A more flexible option is the membership in the Online Support (OS), which opens up an extensive offer and is aimed at all those who want to learn and practice location-independently. Another option to learn and practice location-independent from and with us are our various online courses, which are constantly updated and revised.

More about this under Offers - Online Support / Offers - Online Courses.

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Workshops on various topics of physical practice as well as personal training (one-to-one instruction) complete the offer in Hamburg and the south of Germany.

More about this under Events.

If you are interested in workshops abroad, please contact us directly.

Notes:

  • Often the first person plural can be found in the texts here, as all people are included who support this work: the internal team, our teachers, students and all the helping hands that keep this philosophy alive.

  • We avoid pigeon-holing or precisely defining what we do. To untangle this potentially endless and for us meaningless process of segregation, we have chosen the term "training" for our work. Training describes what can be described and gives room for all kinds of practice and growth - not only physical, but also human. 

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