Disclaimer: Due to a studio change and some equipment issues, the audio quality in this episode isn't what you're used to from Heart of Man. My team has done the best with what we had. I can however say with absolute confidence, the conversation itself was worth every minute. I hope you feel the same.
Gil 'the Grid' Gomes Leal is the founder and artistic director of the Amenti dance collective and creator of the Amenti MoveMeant method.
As a choreographer, performer, and movement teacher drawing from hip hop, African embodiment, Jungian psychology, and shadow work, Gil now incorporates movement as a form of medicine, connecting others to the inherent wisdom of their body.
Gil grew up inside a Jehovah's Witness household in Rotterdam, where the joy, freedom, and expression he found through dance became a direct threat to his sense of belonging...
It was within those early years of tension between attachment and his authentic expression that the foundation of everything he now teaches was laid...
Through workshops, immersions, and trainings, Gil works alongside the Amenti collective with individuals to access their innate intelligence, guiding them towards deeper empowerment and healing of incomplete past experiences.
I attended one of Amenti's workshops in Bali last year and was struck, as a somatic practitioner myself, by the potent places I got to access through this movement method.
At the core of this conversation is a question Gil and I keep returning to:
- how can we move through experiences where we may have been legitimately victimized, and come into a felt embodiment of our agency and power, which I would argue is our birthright.
We explore how this can be reclaimed through movement, shadow work, and the willingness to stop identifying as a victim of our story and start taking responsibility for it.
In this episode, find out:
- How Gil's childhood within the Jehovah's Witnesses shaped him
- The value of the pain teacher, and what it teaches
- Why authenticity requires the willingness to lose people, and the cost of choosing attachment over truth
- The link between unresolved trauma and powerlessness, and how the body can become the access towards agency
- The difference between being victimized by an event and adopting the victim identity as a way of life
- Why anger is such a foundational emotion to work with, and the wisdom it carries
- Why fundamental safety can never be a given, and why the focus according to Gil is about creating brave spaces rather than safe ones
I loved this conversation with Gil, and admire the way he was fuelled by his own pain, making incredible art out of it that individuals worldwide now get to benefit from.
This episode is for anyone who has spent years feeling like life is happening to them, and is ready to step into the truth that it no longer has to.
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Connect with Alex Lehmann:
🌐 Website: https://www.alexlehmann.co/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexlehmann_
🎥 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@heartofmanpodcast
💼 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexlehmann-hom
🎧 Listen to this conversation on Apple Podcasts and leave a review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heart-of-man/id1697289478
✉️ Email: alexlehmanncoaching@gmail.com
🤝Think we might be a good fit to work together? Let’s find out & schedule a free connection call (one spot available at present time): https://ahb8n7i1908.typeform.com/to/ddTCwpJP
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Connect with Gil 'the Grid' Gomes Leal:
🌐 Amenti Collective: https://www.amenti.world/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gilthegrid/
📸 Instagram (Amenti): https://www.instagram.com/amenti.world/
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AmentiMovemeant
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🔥 Episodes you might enjoy:
Charles Myssy: Shadow Work, Self-Sabotage & Breaking Free From The Patterns Running Your Life | EP 76: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0o7RSS2SerQcmAAU3y2b94?si=whi24n2_QSOcrcFCDc7UAg
