Florian's Personal Story
I was born and raised in The Netherlands, Europe, in the early sixties. It was a time of peace in a political stable environment.
My father was Chinese and born in Indonesia. Being caught between the Dutch and the Indonesians created a lot of doubt and uncertainty for him and his family.
As a young man, he came to the Netherlands to study medicine and become a doctor.
He met my mother, a young Dutch woman. They got married in their late twenties, early thirties and fairly soon, first me and a year later my brother were born.
As a doctor, my father did very well. He had a successful practice and it allowed him to provide his family with a beautiful home, healthy food, nice clothing, medical care and wonderful vacations. My mother stayed home and took care of us, and the house.
My father strongly believed (grounded in the culture he grew up in) that a good education was the key to having a secure life in which he didn’t have to rely on others. He was able to create a life of abundance for himself and his family as a result of the beliefs he held and the education he received.
Like many young children, I adored my father and relied on his guidance and support. From as early a time as I can remember, I felt both stuck and aware of not knowing who I was or where I fit in.
My assessment of how he saw the world was that the world was an unsafe place and that you better make sure that you take care of yourself, because no one else will.
He believed that the key to realizing security and independence is having an education. This belief lies deeply imprinted in my own personality.
When I was about eight years old, my father introduced me to the martial arts. He would demonstrate with ease and joy a set of movements he had learned as a child. It was exciting and invigorating to watch him perform. He also took me and my brother to many Chinese martial arts movies and allowed us to take karate lessons.
The martial arts at that time in my life were a way to connect with my father.
However, I intuitively felt my father’s suffering from the dilemma of having a successful life, but not being fulfilled and able to communicate well with his wife and sons. When I was older and worked in sales and marketing functions and as a physical therapist, I encountered the same suffering in many people.
I choose to believe that I left the corporate environment because I didn’t see how I could find the answer to solving the dilemma my father was struggling with.
Throughout my childhood and adult life, the martial arts have both been a way for me to return to myself and to express myself.
The martial arts also got me in touch with teachers who introduced me to meditation, self-inquiry, self-expression, and interactive skills.
After my father passed away, my life was set with a job, an apartment in my name, a nice car, money in the bank and a marriage. I was bored, unhappy and very comfortable. After my first wife and I got a divorce and my aikido teacher closed his dojo, I decided to leave the Netherlands in search of meaning and identity.
I didn’t realize it at the time but by leaving my native country I opened the door to new opportunities and ways of experiencing and knowing myself.
Over the course of a year, I traveled to America, India, Nepal and Australia and ended up in California, living at a dojo as a live-in student, practicing aikido, meditating and reflecting on life on a daily basis. I loved it!
Towards the end of my stay, I got an offer to take over the dojo. At this time I also got involved with a spiritual school in the bay area. This involvement taught me about my psyche and presence.
As an aikido teacher, working with children and adults, it was never just about self-defense for me. The impact of my early engagement with the martial arts, have always driven me to look at its applications in real life, my engagement with others, and how I know myself.
At one point, I got frustrated with my inability to help people more fully. I decided to engage in a yearlong coaching program so that I could offer my students additional support off the mat that was more focused on their unique individual issues.
Today I find myself often in awe of how life is gracefully beautiful on the one hand and facing the incredibly challenging demands of human life on the other.
I am fully embracing my path, which I hold as an ever-unfolding mystery. I feel passionate about engaging with life and with people in ways that move our unfoldment forward. I love expressive movement, open-ended inquiry, deeply reflective living, and metaphors of warriors, princes and epic adventures. I thrive in authentic and engaged relationships and communities, and I inspire to live a life of meaning.
Based on my early experiences with my father and the experiences I had throughout life and more recently in the last 15 years, my vision is that it is possible to live a life with more (inner) freedom. I feel that I can use my skills and experiences to help others. I feel strongly about living as an example and the necessity of embodied practices and community of like-minded individuals.
RenSomatics is the professional expression of the path I am on and I chose the name for the two elements that form the essence of my work:
Ren is the first Confucian virtue and it signifies the good feeling a person experiences when being selfless. It is also the Chinese name given to me by my grandfather, and a way for me to honor him and my father in their search for identity as Chinese of Indonesia.
The term somatics is derived from the Greek somatikos, which means the living, aware, bodily person.
RenSomatics is an embodiment of my intention to help others through Self-mastery for the sake of respectful relationships, sustainable businesses, and a healthy environment.
RenSomatics - Mastery for the sake of producing value for others
Leadership Development and Life Coaching
I was born and raised in The Netherlands, Europe, in the early sixties. It was a time of peace in a political stable environment.
My father was Chinese and born in Indonesia. Being caught between the Dutch and the Indonesians created a lot of doubt and uncertainty for him and his family.
As a young man, he came to the Netherlands to study medicine and become a doctor.
He met my mother, a young Dutch woman. They got married in their late twenties, early thirties and fairly soon, first me and a year later my brother were born.
As a doctor, my father did very well. He had a successful practice and it allowed him to provide his family with a beautiful home, healthy food, nice clothing, medical care and wonderful vacations. My mother stayed home and took care of us, and the house.
My father strongly believed (grounded in the culture he grew up in) that a good education was the key to having a secure life in which he didn’t have to rely on others. He was able to create a life of abundance for himself and his family as a result of the beliefs he held and the education he received.
Like many young children, I adored my father and relied on his guidance and support. From as early a time as I can remember, I felt both stuck and aware of not knowing who I was or where I fit in.
My assessment of how he saw the world was that the world was an unsafe place and that you better make sure that you take care of yourself, because no one else will.
He believed that the key to realizing security and independence is having an education. This belief lies deeply imprinted in my own personality.
When I was about eight years old, my father introduced me to the martial arts. He would demonstrate with ease and joy a set of movements he had learned as a child. It was exciting and invigorating to watch him perform. He also took me and my brother to many Chinese martial arts movies and allowed us to take karate lessons.
The martial arts at that time in my life were a way to connect with my father.
However, I intuitively felt my father’s suffering from the dilemma of having a successful life, but not being fulfilled and able to communicate well with his wife and sons. When I was older and worked in sales and marketing functions and as a physical therapist, I encountered the same suffering in many people.
I choose to believe that I left the corporate environment because I didn’t see how I could find the answer to solving the dilemma my father was struggling with.
Throughout my childhood and adult life, the martial arts have both been a way for me to return to myself and to express myself.
The martial arts also got me in touch with teachers who introduced me to meditation, self-inquiry, self-expression, and interactive skills.
After my father passed away, my life was set with a job, an apartment in my name, a nice car, money in the bank and a marriage. I was bored, unhappy and very comfortable. After my first wife and I got a divorce and my aikido teacher closed his dojo, I decided to leave the Netherlands in search of meaning and identity.
I didn’t realize it at the time but by leaving my native country I opened the door to new opportunities and ways of experiencing and knowing myself.
Over the course of a year, I traveled to America, India, Nepal and Australia and ended up in California, living at a dojo as a live-in student, practicing aikido, meditating and reflecting on life on a daily basis. I loved it!
Towards the end of my stay, I got an offer to take over the dojo. At this time I also got involved with a spiritual school in the bay area. This involvement taught me about my psyche and presence.
As an aikido teacher, working with children and adults, it was never just about self-defense for me. The impact of my early engagement with the martial arts, have always driven me to look at its applications in real life, my engagement with others, and how I know myself.
At one point, I got frustrated with my inability to help people more fully. I decided to engage in a yearlong coaching program so that I could offer my students additional support off the mat that was more focused on their unique individual issues.
Today I find myself often in awe of how life is gracefully beautiful on the one hand and facing the incredibly challenging demands of human life on the other.
I am fully embracing my path, which I hold as an ever-unfolding mystery. I feel passionate about engaging with life and with people in ways that move our unfoldment forward. I love expressive movement, open-ended inquiry, deeply reflective living, and metaphors of warriors, princes and epic adventures. I thrive in authentic and engaged relationships and communities, and I inspire to live a life of meaning.
Based on my early experiences with my father and the experiences I had throughout life and more recently in the last 15 years, my vision is that it is possible to live a life with more (inner) freedom. I feel that I can use my skills and experiences to help others. I feel strongly about living as an example and the necessity of embodied practices and community of like-minded individuals.
RenSomatics is the professional expression of the path I am on and I chose the name for the two elements that form the essence of my work:
Ren is the first Confucian virtue and it signifies the good feeling a person experiences when being selfless. It is also the Chinese name given to me by my grandfather, and a way for me to honor him and my father in their search for identity as Chinese of Indonesia.
The term somatics is derived from the Greek somatikos, which means the living, aware, bodily person.
RenSomatics is an embodiment of my intention to help others through Self-mastery for the sake of respectful relationships, sustainable businesses, and a healthy environment.
RenSomatics - Mastery for the sake of producing value for others
Leadership Development and Life Coaching