Our “Rituals” series comes to meet you, at home, listening to your lifestyle habits.
These little routines that you have adopted more or less consciously, to improve your mood, inspire you, get in shape, ... In short, to have a fulfilling day, being faithful to your desires and efficient in the implementation of your projects.
For this third episode, we met Staiv Gentis .
He is a teacher and coach with a holistic approach to body and mind. Specializing in personal training and mentoring, he works with celebrities, artists, athletes and business leaders.
He also delivers workshops and group retreats as well as conferences and media around well-being and awareness.
He talks to Trésor Bofete about the connection between body and mind, kimono and Bruce Lee.
Hello Staiv, you are a holistic coach and teacher.
Can you introduce your activity?
By "holistic" we mean that which encompasses the being in all its dimensions.
Mainly that of the body and that of the mind which are completely intertwined, interconnected.
In the West, we have a slightly more dualistic vision of things, we see the body on one side and the mind on the other.
I have always been in the body, in “physicality”. I also encountered meditation quite early.
This connection between body and mind seemed quite natural to me. The heart of my activity is to transmit these practices, to transmit these tools, these paths.
These are not things that I invented. I consider myself part of a tradition to learn martial arts or yogic paths. An all-encompassing, holistic tradition that actually allows us to unfold our human potential: strengthening the body and allowing the mind to flourish and vice versa.
How long have you been interested in this field?
I was lucky enough to be put on the tatami at a very young age, thanks to my father, from the age of 4.
Today I am 34 years old, so for about thirty years.
I felt the call to want to pass on quite early.
I started my studies with physical preparation and then I continued to study meditation and altered states of consciousness. And it will now be sixteen years that I teach and train.
Do you spend a lot of time at home, in your interior?
I created a dojo in Paris. Dojo means "the place of the way" in Japanese. It is a place of martial practice but also of meditation: zazen, that is to say seated meditation.
The dojo is truly my first home. It’s where I spend the most time, where I practice my personal skills, but also where I welcome my students.
Do you have any rituals when you welcome your students?
How do you manage to gain their trust?
Everything is very ritualized in martial arts.
There is already the space, the way of entering the place. In Asia, especially in Japan, we leave our shoes at the entrance, we change clothes to put on clothes that allow practice and free movement. When we arrive in the dojo, there is like an airlock, a switch that is made. We enter a state of consciousness, of presence. We wear a dedicated outfit, bare feet on the tatami, we make contact with the ground, then we begin a conscious breathing, a meditation.
There is a notion of the sacred when you enter this place, a non-dogmatic sacred.
What is your relationship with your interior? Your physical interior, the dojo, but also your spirituality…
There are many parallels.
The exterior is what emanates from us, it is a reflection of our interior.
Let's take up this image of meditation: to receive, we must leave ourselves space, move towards this capacity to welcome something beyond the mind, beyond egocentric activity, beyond thought. This emptiness allows us to receive life fully by being free of all our accumulated burdens, by carrying them in any case as little as possible.
There is this very minimalist side in the extension of my interior.
I own very few things, very few clothes.
What rituals do you perform during the day to feel good?
The body is the temple of the mind.
So taking care of your physical living space also means taking care of your interior as a spiritual living space.
There is not a day that begins without expressing gratitude.
Without being affiliated with a particular religion or spiritual movement, every morning when I open my eyes, I thank the universe, I thank life, the source, nature. I let this feeling of gratitude infuse deep within me. I use this moment of peace to give thanks.
Naturally, I then take a moment to meditate, to breathe. It can be more or less long depending on the feeling and the schedule of the day.
Immediately after, I move my body gently: mobility exercises, movement routines.
This routine, whether I am at the dojo or elsewhere, allows me to start my days.
Which people who inspired you are you grateful to today?
I do indeed express a lot of gratitude.
There are figures who accompany us through the ages who have allowed us, as a species, as a civilization, to awaken.
I always carry within me these great figures of stoicism, for example, like Marcus Aurelius or Seneca.
I also think of Jiddu Krishnamurti, a great thinker who taught me a lot about the non-dogmatic and non-formatted approach to meditation.
And then there are other figures who speak to me a lot, like Bruce Lee, for example, a great martial artist, also a philosopher and artist of the seventh art.
Do you have a wardrobe that is dedicated to your interior?
Who says dojo, says kimono.
I started with judo, around the age of 4. Since then, the kimono has never left me.
My outfit, my uniform, is this kimono. Not a ceremonial kimono but rather the combat kimonos.
Those used for training in martial arts.
I like black kimonos, that slightly dark, ninja side.
So, most of the time, I wear a kimono. When I come back to the dojo or home, it's a garment that allows for easy movement.
A few words about the history of the kimono?
Its origin is Japanese. There are two forms of kimono.
The very dressy kimono worn by men and women in Japan, even if today with the modernization of lifestyles, this kimono is less worn on a daily basis. It is very elegant, rather reserved for traditions, spiritual festivals or family reunions… It is very ritualized. There is a certain awareness in the way of dressing, of wearing the kimono which also conditions a way of moving.
And the training kimonos, the combat kimonos that we find for jujitsu, for aikido, with these large hakamas, these very wide, very graceful pants.
These kimonos are made of much more resistant materials, with the belt which displays the rank.
They are mainly dedicated to martial arts. They are the ones I wear every day. Especially the bottom of the kimono, the pants, loose, without pockets. Always in this idea of minimalism.
In fact, I'm often naked with just my kimono bottom. I like this idea that the garment is just, minimal. Something that allows you to be, without restrictions.
Can we say that it is a comforting garment for you?
Not necessarily in the order of comfort, but rather in the order of a state.
It's a garment that we use to meditate or to train for combat. When I put on this kimono, I also have this state of presence. There is also this martial dimension that accompanies me.
Moreover, even if I sometimes like to be elegant, well dressed, in a suit for example, I appreciate all the more the fact of reducing to a minimum the interactions with the material world. This leaves more space for one's interior, in the sense of consciousness, in the sense of spirit.
How would you define your style in civilian life?
Very minimalist, that's for sure.
I have had the chance to meet or train people in the fashion world, artistic directors, designers. So I am aware of beauty, beautiful shapes, fabrics and minimalism.
My style, I could perhaps define it as the urban ninja, the modern samurai.
Clothing is an extension of ourselves. Our outfit should not sound false, just to try to give ourselves a style. The kimono is, for me, my right uniform. In the dojo or at home.
It must allow me to move. To be able to move, run, jump, defend myself (in theory), avoid any type of blockage.
You are dressed in black today. Very sober, very minimalist.
For you, is it important to be discreet, sober?
I actually like sobriety.
Discretion and black, that's almost my entire wardrobe. The other part is white, we come back to yin and yang…. White kimonos, black kimonos. Very simple.
Steve, we're coming to the end of this interview.
It was very enriching. What can we wish you for the future?
Thank you. What is deeply important to me is to be at the service of messages that can be useful to others, that allow others to take care of themselves in turn, of their body, of their mind.
This is my intention, this is what I have dedicated my life to.
I have several projects underway: conferences, podcasts, a series called l' Aveil , in collaboration with GQ magazine for which we meet experts, artists, athletes or people who work in the field of consciousness and well-being.
Beyond a personal wish, my goal is for us to wake up collectively. We are facing one of the great challenges on the scale of our civilizations. There is a lot of violence, a lot of divisions.
We can wish for ourselves to unite as human beings, to leave behind this barrier between each other and to evolve hand in hand.
That's perfect, thank you.
See you soon, thank you, Treasure.
Listen to the podcast
Watch the full interview with Staiv Gentis
(thanks to Maison Breguet for the welcome)
