“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

The living organism expresses itself in movemBent more clearly than in words

But not alone in movement in pose in posture in attitude and in every gesture the organism speaks a language

Which antedates and transcends its verbal expression?

The connection between mind and body has long been a contentious point of debate and our understanding of it remains shrouded in mystery

but whatever its true nature this connection is extremely powerful and it is one in which causation runs both ways our

Mind can help heal an ailing body while our body can do the same for an ailing mind in

The West this latter approach is underutilized

mainstream psychologists and psychiatrists are far more

Oriented toward techniques that work at the level of our thoughts or emotions or to altering the chemistry of our brain with drugs

Than they are to helping us resolve our issues with techniques that work at the level of the body

But for many of us change at the somatic level may be the change

We need to unlock a better life in this video relying on the work of Alexander Lowen a 20th century

psychotherapist and medical doctor

We are going to explore how our bodies can be used to promote our psychological health in the development of a great character

So intimate is the intermingling of bodily and psychic traits wrote Carl Jung that not only can we draw far-reaching?

Inferences as to the constitution of the psyche from the constitution of the body

But we can also infer from psychic peculiarities the corresponding bodily characteristics

The etymological root of the word character stretches back to the ancient Greek word for a stamping tool

Our life experiences stamp their imprint on us and in conjunction with our genetic dispositions help shape our character

This stamp of experience. However

operates at both the level of the body and the mind and for this reason our

Character is expressed as much in our bodies as it is through our minds or as low and explains

Psyche and soma are two aspects of a unitary process one mental and the other physical

Much like the head and tail phases of a coin whatever one does with the coin affects both sides simultaneously

An example can clarify this point suppose in our childhood

We had role models who demeaned or ridiculed us rather than teaching us how to live and how to flourish

Such an experience will undoubtedly influenced the development of our character

Self inhibiting thought patterns and negative emotions such as hate anger and anxiety are likely to shape who we become

but these negative thought patterns and maladaptive emotions are not hermetically sealed off in the mind our

Thoughts lead to action or abstention of action and action is a bodily phenomenon

Emotions are felt in the mind, but they also have a somatic form of expression and this expression

influences the structure of our body the

Baggage of our youth will not just weigh us down psychologically

but it can also weigh us down physically and inhibit the functioning of our body whereas Lowe and explains if

A person has a strong and secure sense of himself

He will naturally stand erect if he is frightened

He will tend to cower if he is sad or depressed his body will droop

If he is trying to deny or compensate for inner feelings of insecurity

He will stand like a martinet and his posture will be unnaturally rigid

that a human body is an expression of its character is

Intuitively known by each of us as it forms the basis of our ability to read people by their body language

wise men wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson

read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior the

Whole economy of sure is bent on expression. The tell-tale body is all tongues

We also pay homage to this connection between character and body in the many somatic metaphors

We use to represent psychic conditions. We call people pushovers

We say they lack guts that they are spineless always on their toes or incapable of holding their ground

But while we may rely on the bodily

Instantiations of other people's character to help us interpret who they are and how we should interact with them

Relatively few of us. Take a serious look at our own body and the somatic expression of our character flaws

But ignorance is not bliss in this regard for as Socrates stated long ago

It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness

Before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit

Developing our body in the direction of its highest ideal is one of the surest means to the cultivation of a great character

For just as our thought patterns and emotions affect the structure of our body

How we hold and move our body alters how we think and feel if we want to be courageous?

For example, we can change how we relate to our emotions

But in addition to this we can also start holding and moving our body in a manner that reflects and promotes courage

But in order to make use of this bottom-up approach to character development

We need to understand the bodily ideal toward which we should aim for only with such knowledge

Can we begin crafting experiments to help move us in this direction?

The first thing we need to recognize is that with the rise of anxiety disorders and depression in the modern West

The bodily expression of increasing numbers of people is likewise becoming pathological

Normality should not be seen as a representation of health

Rigidity immobility and awkwardness and movement and either compulsivity or impulsivity in action

Typify the somatic expression of the normal man or woman these days and all these traits are ones. We need to move away from

Broadly speaking

right slowin

the emotionally disturbed person moves compulsively or impulsively

The compulsive person is rigid his ego restraints are so-so that his movements take on a mechanical

Patterned quality and spontaneity is missing the impulsive person is hyperactive

He can neither sit still nor channel his energy into constructive activities

His inadequate ego is constantly being overwhelmed by his feelings

At the same time he is constantly frustrated since his feelings spill out without achieving anything

The compulsive person is afraid to let go of his rigid control. The impulsive person is unable to maintain control

in contrast to this picture of the emotionally disturbed the healthy body the body that is the reflection and promoter of a well-developed and

High functioning human being can be defined by two main traits

gracefulness and aggressiveness

Gracefulness is perhaps the most obvious sign of a body

That is the home to a flourishing mind the graceful individual naturally catches our eye and not just because such people are rare

But also because this type of movement is inherently attractive

Graceful individuals are not self-conscious about their bodies and they move with a natural ease

Lowe and suggests that gracefulness is found at the golden mean between spontaneity and control

Too much of either contributes to psychological disturbance but a healthy dose of both is the recipe for grace

Spontaneity is a function of self-expression. The more alive a person is the more spontaneous are his movements

The body is naturally

Expressive it is constantly changing to reflect its inner feelings in this respect

It is like a flame which is never the same at any two moments

While the body is more structured than a flame. It is not as rigid as a machine

It has a fluid quality and responds to the play of the inner forces

When control and spontaneity are integrated in the body's movements, the result is coordination

coordination reflects the degree to which the ego is identified with the body and yet is in command of its movements a

Healthy person is well coordinated in his movements. He is spontaneous and yet in control

But the flourishing human being is more than just graceful in bodily expression

He or she is also capable of aggression

Not aggression in the sense of committing hostile acts against other people but aggression as the opposite to passivity

The aggressive manner woman does not sit idly by waiting for the necessities of life to be delivered on a platter

Rather he or she is proactive such people move forward into life in search of what they need

Aggressiveness is a trait naturally embodied in all living creatures and necessarily. So for without it survival would be impossible

man is the only creature who can deceive himself in the belief that passiveness is an appropriate way to live a

person's natural aggressive impulses can be suppressed but they cannot be eliminated right slow in life itself is

Aggressive in that it is a forward moving

ongoing process that seeks to overcome all obstacles a

sprouting seed pushes its way very aggressively upward through the earth to reach the light as

long as the metabolic activities of life continue

Energy is produced to power the aggressive impulses when these impulses are blocked from expression

The normal flow of energy is dammed creating an explosive situation

How does one embody the aggression that promotes health?

according to Lowen aggression is primarily a function of our legs our

Legs are what move us forward into life and so limited strength or flexibility in our legs and a more sedentary

Existence will inhibit an aggressive mindset

Standing with the weight shifted to the balls of our feet and knees slightly bent is a pose that can imbue the mind with increased

Agressivity but aggressiveness is also promoted or hindered by our connection to the ground or as low and explains

Having some ground to stand on has both the psychological and a literal meaning psychologically

It means that a person has a good reason or cause for his aggressive action

Without the inner conviction right or wrong. That one's aggression is justified

It would be difficult to move forward effectively in another sense the term having some ground to stand on

Means that a person feels he has the right be on this earth and to share in the life of the earth

He feels that he has the right to be to want to move towards and to take

To evaluate how strongly a person feels this right? We can measure how strongly he can hold his ground

Broadly speaking

We can say that the more grounded a person is in his legs the more strongly he can hold his ground

He will feel that he has some ground to stand on and therefore some standing as a person

aggression and grace

These are the traits of the flourishing body and the more we can mimic such forms of expression

The more we will develop in both body and mind in our next video

We are going to explore some practical ways to promote the bodily ideal

We just outlined and one man, we will turn to for guidance is Friedrich Nietzsche

for Nietzsche

Well understood how important the body is in the promotion of a flourishing life so much so that he made the following bold Proclamation

You say I and are proud of this word?

But greater than this in which you do not want to believe in is your body and it's great intelligence

this does not say I but performs I

You