During my rather shaky upbringing, I was frequently confronted with the limitations of my own body.

I mean "shaky" literally:
My 3-year-old self experienced the Izmit earthquake in 1999, a 7.6-magnitude quake.

Talk about catastrophic! I don't remember anything. None of my family members died, which was nothing less but a miracle.

From there on, I knew I was up to something.

My dad wasn't the best role model either, and
I wish him all the best. My mum and older brother on the other hand are the best family
I could wish for.

As I grew older, I pattern recognized how my behavior reflected unstable foundations seeking environments. I was raised getting used to stress and adrenaline.

I started jiu-jitsu and fell in love with the sheer helplessness and struggle that came with it.

I graduated, signed up as a freelancer right away with no financial literacy or backup, and moved to a portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic. I was sick of Germany. I wanted to lose my ground, over and over again.

I had so many problems with my body growing up. I never did sports as a kid, only in school (which wasn't really anything at all). I grew up playing video games, being traumatized by an abusive father and tense home environment, and then later found out I have several blockages in the spine, plus a functional scoliosis.

I traced some of these problems, plus lots of psychosomatic struggles, back to the fact that I was chronically exposed to mercury through my teeth fillings.

For years, I lived with chronic pain, dysfunction, and a burning desire to understand what was wrong, because it felt so.

Because when it feels wrong, it usually is.

Several physicians later, all of them not having a clue what was actually wrong, I paid out of my own pocket to visit an osteopath. Most of the following osteopaths had the integrated, big picture education to see what was wrong, but they could only offer short-term solutions for the time I was able to pay out of my own pocket.

So I was on my own as long as I remember.
I started distrusting school medicine.

For all it's glory and saved lives (it saved my mums), it's flaws are obvious.

At 24, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in industrial design, but I actually never wanted to be a designer, as I found out later.

I am talking about authentic desire.
You know, especially as immigrant kids, we were fed this idea—and to some extent, a lie—that when we study, everything will be fine.

Money, security, status, all included.
What a dream!

On the day of my defense, my professor said into my face: “Tarkan, you have earned this bachelors degree, but you are not a designer. You are a great problem solver.”

I was thinking, "Wtf? What am I supposed to do with this information? Guess I’ll go out and solve problems?"

That’s what I did.

Solving my bodies problems.

On the side wasted a bunch of time and stress trying to be a digital nomad/freelancer with design, marketing, and copywriting jobs. It got me the resources to at least duck around and find out.

Over the years, of course, my relationship with my body got better.

As it felt like being born in an old man's body, I was living life backward and reaped the fruits of taking care of myself holistically. I got stronger, more resilient, and happier in my own skin.

I developed a wide range of tools, techniques, and a schooled eye to realign the body into harmony and flow. I learned from the "pain teacher", because I listened, took the acquired skills and tools with me—now helping people towards a happy and pain-free life.

I've loved strength training since I was 14. Through it, I learned the nuances of treating the body with respect, instead of like a machine, while giving it enough challenge to grow as a unit.

Then at the age of 24, I started practicing jiu-jitsu. This martial art taught me on an even deeper level about respecting my body, pacing according to my energy levels, and flowing with training partners in a challenging, respectful, and ultimately productive way.

I learned to establish boundaries and to push others just enough for us both to learn effectively, leaving my ego outside the door.

My own journey of healing from chronic pain led me to the CHEK Institute, where I found the scientific and integrated framework that gave me the system, language and tools to formalize my practice.

I hope I inspired you to take the bull by it's horns and take action.

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