N°04 The Lab

The studio & the teachers

A teacher,
a path,
a practice.

Bodyfulness Lab is held by two people. Everything that happens here, the weekly classes, the retreats, the shared table, passes through our hands, is shaped by our practice, and is kept small enough to stay that way.

i. What is bodyfulness

A word to stand next to mindfulness.

Bodyfulness is the practice of being in a body, on purpose, with care, as a way of life. Where mindfulness trains attention, bodyfulness asks where attention is, and answers, in a body. There is no other place to be aware from.

Said simply, it is the lifelong work of understanding how your body works, and getting the best from it. The thinking, sensing, feeling, breathing organism is the person. The work of this studio is to make that real, in tissue.

ii. The wound we inherited

Hundreds of years of forgetting.

I speak here of the West because that is the tradition I was educated in. I name what we inherited so we can work with it honestly.

For hundreds of years, the Western world has slowly moved away from the body. What was once understood as a living intelligence, what the Greeks called soma, became something to control, then something to separate from, and finally something to optimise from the outside.

With thinkers like René Descartes, the line was drawn clearly: mind here, body there. Sensation, emotion and instinct have been treated as secondary, even unreliable. The result is not just a philosophical idea, but a way of living, where many people no longer feel at home in their own body.

Bodyfulness is our small return.

iii. The vehicles of return

Your practice.

If mindfulness trains us to observe the present moment, embodiment asks us to fully inhabit the vessel experiencing it. To move from the conceptual to the physical here on the ground of Taghazout, Morocco, we rely on specific, time-tested vehicles: Yoga, Qigong, and Somatic work.

In our studio, these disciplines are never treated as mere physical optimizations or holiday fitness. Somatics serves as a direct dialogue with your nervous system, allowing you to sense from the inside out and slowly undo the deep, unconscious holding patterns where stress resides. Qigong shifts the focus to energy and fluidity, teaching you how to build and circulate vitality without forcing it.

Yoga, stripped of its performative modern gloss, rebuilds structural integrity. When you practice with us, the work is about learning how to maintain your breath, your ground, and your presence under the pressure of a posture. Whether you are joining us for a weekly class or a dedicated Moroccan retreat, these modalities form a complete practice. They are not an escape from reality, but the tools we use to step back into it, fully anchored in our own tissue.

iv. Words we use carefully

A small lexicon.

Because much of the language around wellness has been worn smooth by overuse, these are the few terms we try to keep intact. They name what actually happens in the lab.

soma

From the Greek sōmatikos, the living, aware, bodily person. Not the body-as-object, but the body-as-subject: the one doing the sensing, not the thing being sensed.

Hanna, Strozzi-Heckler

embodiment

The subjective, lived experience of being a body rather than just having one. It is the shift from treating the body as an object to be watched or controlled, to inhabiting it as the primary subject and ground of our reality.

Mark Walsh

skillful action

The capacity to act from presence rather than reaction, what somatic training is for. The point is not sensation for its own sake, but the ability to live, work, and meet others from a more integrated ground.

Strozzi-Heckler

lived body

A phenomenological term, from Merleau-Ponty. Not the body described from outside, the body as one's point of entry into the world, the place where perception and meaning first appear.

Merleau-Ponty

bodyfulness

A conscious and intentional presence within the moving body. It is the lifelong process of somatic "waking up," using movement and awareness to build personal empowerment and authentic presence in this life.

Christine Caldwell

the lab

What we call the studio when we're talking about what actually matters in it. Four walls, a floor, the people in it, and the practice underway. Nothing mystical. Just everything that is.

Studio shorthand

v. Who holds the lab

The teacher and the co-teacher.

Two people, two paths into the same practice. The studio is what happens when those paths meet.

Youness, founder of Bodyfulness Lab

Founder

Youness

Founder, teacher, host

"I am Youness, and I help you come home to the body you already have."

"For most of us, modern life is a process of 'forgetting' the body. We carry 'armoring'; unconscious patterns of tension born from stress and the pace of the West. My work at the Lab is to guide you through the process of slowing down, regulating your nervous system, and moving back into a direct, sensing relationship with yourself."

What he teaches

Animal Flow Ashtanga Black Lotus Yoga Hatha Vinyasa Flow Yin & Restorative Somatic Yoga Qigong & NeiGong Somatic Breathwork Yoga Nidra Thai Bodywork Tantra & Karma Mudra Partner Yoga

Where he trained

2020 Qigong & Internal Arts Teacher Training Master Mantak Chia, Universal Healing Tao
2021 Qigong Advanced Master Ke Wen, Les Temps du Corps, Paris
2022 Vinyasa & Hatha Yoga 200hr Teacher Training My Vinyasa Practice (MVP)
2023 Animal Flow® Level 1 Certification Freyja Spencer, Animal Flow
2024 Thai Fascial Massage Certification Lindsay, Thai Fascial Massage Training
2024 Trauma-Informed & Somatic Yoga 300hr Teacher Training Tara Judelle, Embodied Flow

Grounded in

Sufi tradition, Daoist philosophy, classical yoga (Ashtanga, Hatha), Qigong & Neigong, Tantra & Karma Mudra (Yoga of Bliss), Western somatic lineage (Reich, Lowen, Pierrakos, Feldenkrais, Alexander, Rolf, Hanna, Levine, Porges, Myer).

Languages

Darija, Classical Arabic, French, English

Petra, co-teacher at Bodyfulness Lab

Co-teacher

Petra

Teacher, form & movement

"I am Petra, and I help you find the quiet architecture of your movement."

"With a background in ballet and twenty years in fashion design, I see the body as both a line in space and a living, breathing form. My work in Ashtanga, Hatha, and Yin is a study of precision and grace. I guide you to build strength and mobility by slowing down, ensuring every movement is an act of presence rather than performance."

What she teaches

Ashtanga Black Lotus Yoga Hatha Vinyasa Partner Yoga Somatic Dance Yin & Restorative

Grounded in

Ballet & classical movement, postural yoga traditions, twenty years in fashion and design, a lived relationship with Morocco.

Languages

Croatian, English

Come into the lab.

See the weekly schedule Enquire about a retreat