Bioenergetics – What is it?

 BIOENERGETICS – What is it?

The meaning of Bioenergetics is very simple, Bio means life and energetics means energy, so that is the energy of life. Exercises and movements combined with synchronized breathing activate your energy and move it through your whole body, exiting from the top of your head. It will try to kick out all blockages it may find in its way. Our body has the tendency to clean itself out. As a result, the Bioenergetics exercises may include some crying, expressions of anger, laughter, shouts, fear discharges and sexual vibrations.

All feelings we repress throughout life are stored in our muscles. You may wonder how. It´s simple. When you get angry with someone you tense your jaw, your neck and suppress your breathing. In doing this, you block your rage. It will be held in your chin, jaw, neck and diaphragm muscles, exactly where you block you breathing. It ends up becoming an automatic body pattern repeated over and over during your life. Such energy blocked in your muscles needs great effort from your physical and emotional system to be trapped there. Through the exercises of Bioenergetics you can liberate those emotions and then your system doesn´t need to spend energy to hold them. That means more energy for your life, more joy, more sexual arousal and more love.

The same happens when we feel an emotional pain. We contract your shoulders closing off our chest, and that´s why our shoulders muscles are so tense. We close off so as not to feel any pain but it takes us a great amount of energy which is liberated during the exercises, becoming available to your life.

The same happens concerning sex. When we feel turned on and repress it (I´m not here to judge what´s right or wrong) our pelvis contracts. Many times such tension may even move it from its original place bringing it back or forward. This is one of the reasons for what people have problems in their lower back. Now, your body spends a lot of energy to hold such tension in your pelvis. For men, this tension also causes premature ejaculation and difficulty in having an erection. For women, difficulty in having an orgasm, with lubrication and sex drive. When the Bioenergetics exercises unlock this energy you get it all back again.

Be aware that these repressions started in our childhood. You can´t suddenly get rid of them but as it happens progressively you start feeling its effects. When Bioenergetics is lead by a professional with knowledge and who has practiced it him/herself, it makes a great difference in one´s life.

We can honestly say that Bioenergetics is a gift in our lives. It´s not a technique or a religion, it doesn´t even come from any guru or anything like that. Alexander Lowen, who is a pioneer in Bioenergetics, discovered the grounding (its main exercise) by watching the Innuit tribes of Alaska. When leaving their igloos, facing a freezing cold day – fifty degrees below zero – they used to bend their bodies forward till the fingers almost touch the ground in front of their feet and, with their knees slightly bent they would breathe deeply. Lowen observed some vibration started happening as if it could break the cold in their bodies. Then they would roll up and bend their bodies backwards moving the pelvis forward, breathing and keeping the arms up and back which increased the vibration intensity. Afterwards they felt warm enough to start their daily routine. This exercise that the Innuit did activated their vital energy producing heat and spreading it through their whole body.

We all have a lot of energy. Most of it has been used to keep or hold of tensions and emotions we blocked during our lives like fears, pain, anger, joy, sexual desire, and love. That´s why modern man uses their bodies too little and always feels tired, with no motivation. Actually, he/she has been spending a lot of energy to hold such feelings.

Try Bioenergetics and you can find it out for yourself!