Atlantic Canada Society For Bioenergetic Analysis

FROM OUR BOOKSHELVES

Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel
by Candace B Pert (1997)

"It was in the spring of 1983 that Michael and I decided that we were in love. ... I remember the moment I realized that Michael and I had a future ... Mike had been away from the lab for a week, and on his first day back had arranged to meet me at our usual corner for an informal update on the work we'd been doing together. I looked up as he slipped into the booth and noticed his eyes were wider, more clear and deep, and he seemed present in a way I hadn't noticed before.

"Wow, Mike, where have you been?" I couldn't help myself from asking. "You look like a different person!"

He smiled and in his low-key way proceeded to tell me that he'd been at a week-long bioenergetic workshop.

"It was great," he responded enthusiastically. ..."I can't believe how much better I feel!"

From the writings of Alexander Lowen, M.D. :

To be in touch with the self is to be in touch with the body and its feelings.	Let your heart tell you what to do - and your head tell you how to do it.	Through the body sensations that arise from full and deep breathing, we become conscious of the pulsating aliveness of our bodies and sense that we are one with all pulsating creatures in a pulsating universe.
The main thrust of therapy is to help a person stop struggling against him/herself. That struggle is self-destructive, and it will accomplish nothing. Growth happens naturally and spontaneously when energy is available.
Bioenergetics is a form of therapy that combines work with the body and the mind to help people resolve their emotional problems and realize more of their potential for pleasure and joy in living.

  Photo by Bethany Doyle

"Quoted from Dr. Robert Hilton's Address 14th Biennial Conference: Bioenergetics '98: The Passion and The Person, Arles France, May 24 to 29, 1998.

We are still crooked trees, but we have discovered that even crooked trees, given the proper care can blossom in the Spring and the crookedness becomes a testimony of the struggles against the winds, storms and droughts of life.

A few years ago at Christmas time I bought a centerpiece for the dining room table. After the holidays when the original flowers had all bloomed and died, the evergreens in the arrangement continued to live. Along with these evergreens was a dead twisted twig of some kind that had been completely painted gold and was used as part of the decoration. Virginia threw out the dead flowers, and keeping the gold twisted twig for decoration along with the evergreens would refurbish this display with fresh flowers.

She did this process for several weeks when one day I pointed out to her that the dead twig was alive. The weeks of watering the other flowers had slowly nourished this twig and a tiny green chute was coming forth from under the layers of gold paint.

We both simply stood in awe for neither of us thought there was any life there at all. Our hearts were touched by the mystery of nature and the persistence of life to express itself. So many times my clients have said, "Thank you for not giving up on me." And they have also said, "You have helped me even when you didn't think you were. You have helped me be real by being real yourself." They have also said as I did to my therapist, "You have helped me blossom and grow, not by your analysis of my problems or by your skill as a bioenergetic therapist, but by being who you are and receiving my love."

"Also from Arles...
Van Gogh Blossoming Almond

Bioenergetics
is a way
of understanding
personality in terms
of the body and its
energetic processes.

FOUR KEY WAYS TO LET YOUR ENERGY FLOW:

Let your knees be soft and flexible.
Let yourself breathe.
Let your abdomen be soft.
Make a sound: let yourself be heard.

The Way to
Vibrant Health
by
Alexander Lowen, M.D.

  Photo by Joan Doyle

Bethany Doyle is a holistic psychotherapist. Bethany has created a sanctuary of healing and renewal at her Chrysalis Bioenergetic Centre.