Wanting the block to be 'known' is what stops me exploring — so I try to refine the inhale and look for the deeper thing it might be referred from.
For about a decade I chased methods — one more fix for my back, one more idea for focus, one more system for staying consistent. What changed wasn't a better trick; it was deciding to build one baseline I could return to, and then writing down what actually shifted so it wouldn't evaporate. Meditation taught me the core move: when a block shows up — often at the sternum — I don't think my way out, I meet it and stay, breath and posture first, story second. Practice OS is where that move becomes durable: I log one sentence while the insight is still alive, then clarify it into something I'll actually act on. Foundation Training sits underneath both as the structural reset. The thread is contact, then capture.
📍 Marseille, France
· 🌐 Available Online
· practiced since 2015
Foundation TrainingEmbodied meditationNotion systems coaching
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About
Patrice Gorin is a meditation practitioner-in-training (Reso, Year 3) and the maker of Practice OS, a Notion-based system for turning what each session teaches into something that lasts. He is anchored in Marseille and travels for part of each year — studio visits and residencies across London, Amsterdam, Chamonix and Zurich — and is available online. He works on two things: meditation as contact — meeting the block and staying — and Practice OS itself, the loop that keeps insight from evaporating. Foundation Training is the structural baseline beneath both.
Meet the tight spot; it softensCatch it however it comes; let it goKinder attention on the inner critic; the tone shiftsCarry what matters; the rest falls awayStraight and relaxed at the same time
Guide Notes
How I Came to This
I came to meditation the way I came to everything — looking for a technique that would finally work. What I met instead was a different instruction: stop steering, make contact. The first time a guided sitting created an actual dialogue inside me rather than a performance of calm, I understood this wasn't about getting quieter. It was about being honest about what was already here.
What I Felt
The work showed up in the body before the mind. A block would gather at the sternum, and instead of thinking my way past it I learned to meet it and stay — breath and posture first, story second — until it softened and moved. And the posture simply clicked: straight and relaxed at the same time — breath, adductors and pelvic floor working as one system. I could relax forward without feeling I was compressing my back, and curl down further feeling safer and stronger. The same attention, turned on the inner judge, changed its tone from prosecution to presence.
What Shifted
The breakthrough wasn't a single sitting — it was noticing that the insight kept evaporating by the next morning. So I started logging one sentence within twenty minutes of finishing, while it was still alive. I catch it however it comes — spoken, scribbled, photographed, or typed — and some I hold a little longer, until they've settled; letting it out is how I finally let it go. I used to capture out of fear of forgetting; now I trust that what matters is simply what I keep choosing to carry forward, and the rest quietly falls away. That habit is what built Practice OS: capture in the moment, then clarify each line into something I'll act on — commit, project, reference, or drop — so nothing stays trapped in notes. I first did this as a student — logging one line after sessions across swimming, Foundation Training, Pilates and meditation — and those captured moments are what became this guide. Contact, then capture.
What This Connected To
Meeting the sternum block was the same move I'd found on the mat in Foundation Training, unrolling the spine and staying with the point that resisted. And the capture habit closed the loop the other way: the calm from a sitting only held when I wrote down what changed and let the system carry it. Body, attention, and follow-through stopped being separate practices and became one move repeated in three places. The capture I did as a student is the same practice I now hand to my own students: log the one thing that shifted in our session, then follow how it connects to everything else you practice.
Edition · Spring 2026
✦ Practice Notes
9 field notes · 2025–2026
A thought is just a thought — I don't need to capture or share them all.
The breakthrough: I have countless thoughts and I don't need to capture them all — I can let them go. For years I believed I had to capture everything and then rework it (an impossible equation), and that communicating meant sharing all of it, so I overshared. Living "I'm not my thoughts" changed that — I get to choose the few worth developing. Less capture, less oversharing, less paralysis. Held alongside Pema Chödrön's "throwing the rug": the moment I think I've mastered it, I've lost it. No antidote, only practice.
Leave the complexity intact; it becomes workable and supportive, not an injunction.
Meditation
The sternum block again: met it with the breath the way I unroll my spine on the mat, and stayed with it.
Gyrotonic✦Meditation
Solo sitting with difficult emotions: stayed in contact without narrating.
Meditation
Turn the four questions into affirmations — welcome fear instead of fighting it.
A lovely 15-minute solo sit. Turning the four questions into affirmations helped me not feel afraid or guilty, and to welcome life and connection. The core emotion was a pulsation tied to fear — of not having planned time and money, which reinforce each other. It also surfaced a little defensiveness around "les deux embrassements."
Meditation
The inner prosecutor is one pattern — turn the lamp of attention on it, with kindness.
Seeing the "prosecutor / judge / accuser" as one repeating mechanism across meditation and daily life. Driving tired with Elie, I caught it early and responded gently ("I'm tired — let's be more present") — safer, and far less anger when my inattention was pointed out. The move isn't to fight it or prove it wrong, but to turn attention toward it with presence and kindness.
Meditation
Posture: a shift from trying to inhabiting.
Foundation Training
Straight and relaxed at once — breath, adductors and pelvic floor as one system.
For the first time I could feel straight and relaxed at the same time, everything connected to gentle contractions in the pubic area — likely helped by the magic circle work. Diaphragm breathing linked to adductor contractions, which linked to lower abs and pelvic floor: one integrated system. I could also relax forward without compressing my back, and curl down further feeling safer and stronger.
Meditation
Meditation finally lands — zero in on one thing, practice with openness.
Two 15-minute sits that spilled into the rest of life: seeing I had to handle Mom's admin (and finances) before my own, sharper ideas at work, re-reading to grasp key principles (e.g. the 3 lords and the trap of needing to be right), more comfort with openness ("la 4ème force"), and a calmer night routine. The shift was zeroing in on a specific learning and practicing with more openness.