Fear of Life by Alexander Lowen

"One day I read a book and my whole life was changed". This is what Orhan Pamuk writes in his book "The New Life".  That is a difficult book, it cost me a lot of time and energy to understand, if I did at all...

But. 

Recently, I read a book.  

My whole life was changed. 

No. 

Just, everything fell in place...It is a book by Alexander Loewen called the "Fear of Life". It is a book that you find searching in the category 'Psychology' in Amazon. It is such a coincidence how I landed on this book... I am grateful. After having read the book many things fell in place. Even my education on English language and literature :) The book discusses the Genesis, the Fall and the Greek mythology extensively.

I found this book because of tango. How could you tell...I stumbled upon a blog one day called the Tango Principles. The author was talking about a therapeutic approach called Bioenergetics and how it helped  him overcome the tensions in his body. Being the curious person am I went on reading. The founder of this school called Bioenergetic Therapy is Alexander Loewen. He has numerous books and is the founder of the institute with the same name.

I started reading him. 

A lot.

It is a beautiful book which wakes you up to yourself and to life, if you let it. A few years ago I may not have understood many things I read, or connect with. But now everything falls in place...

Loewen's main message is that we cannot be happy if we ignore our bodies and operate only with our minds. Yet, our cultural society and the civilization drive us to do so and reward us when we do so. We are all after success, money, titles, possessions because we equate them to happiness and security. 

Are they?

If freedom is happiness, how free are we when we have all those things? 

He says we don't need much to be happy, we just need to ensure that our 'self' is aligned with our body. Meaning listening to what comes from our heart,  core and physical body and not only or mainly from the left side of our brains. 

So true. I had to think back about my life and decisions...everything I decided with my heart and 'belly' felt right and made me happy...All decisions resulting only from rational thinking turned out to bring me unhappiness sooner or later...

Why do we do that though? Why do we ignore our instincts and always go with the mind? Because the civilization and acculturation educates us to do so. But then, Loewen says, our bodies are so much older than our minds. They are the products of millions of years of evolution, they have been through things.

Our bodies know.

All we need to do is to trust them more and let go...