THE STORY
The body is our guide through this world, here to help us navigate.
A life spent learning to navigate
Jason Gentrup was born in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, French for “beautiful forks,” and known as the geographic center of the nation. It is the place where one river splits into two, and there has always been something fitting in that. His life has been an unbroken study in navigation: of the world, and of himself.
The Marine Corps, and a wake-up call
He joined the Marine Corps in search of structure and challenge, and was stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. He deployed twice, once to Iraq, once to Afghanistan, and lost his lieutenant overseas. Those years became a wake-up call: to see the world as it actually is, not as we are told it is. He learned to carry his lieutenant with him, and to live the life his friend never got the chance to.
Where the healing began
After leaving the Corps, Jason raised his daughter as a single father while going back to school. Florida was rock bottom: PTSD at its worst, burning out, running on empty. Then he enrolled in massage school, and everything changed. He learned how starved he had been for touch, which is vital to human flourishing, and for connection. Bodywork became the ground he rebuilt himself on.
“Massage and bodywork kept me from joining the people who leave early.”
Jason Gentrup, Honolulu
An education in the human condition
The greatest gift of the work, Jason will tell you, is the education it gave him in being human. Talking with thousands of people at their most vulnerable, there on his table, he watched them open up in ways they rarely do anywhere else. Hour after hour, he learned how the body connects each of us to the world around us, and how much we carry that we never speak of.
Six continents, thirty countries
In 2016 he sold nearly everything and set out with his daughter to see the world: every continent, every ancient site, anything worth learning. Over two and a half years they visited some 30 countries across six continents, living through it all, including COVID in three countries and nine states. He went to see the world as it truly is, and to never get caught in a single way of seeing it.
Putting it to use
Back home, Jason earned a degree in Political Science and Sociology to understand how the world's problems come to be, and a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning to help solve them. He asks a simple question of everything he's learned: what good is wisdom locked away in a single vessel? Body Awakening, and his book, The Human Compass, are his answer. This is the beginning of a new journey: to share what has helped him navigate this world, and himself.
THE PHILOSOPHY
We are not our bodies.The body is our guide through this world,here to help us navigate.The work is learning to listen to it again.
CREDENTIALS