Modern psychology, organizational research, the new sciences, wisdom traditions, and martial arts have all repeatedly “discovered” five fundamental elements that represent human qualities and behavioral options. These elements of power link to personal development through body-mind practices, and also represent options for satisfying and effective action across domains (e.g., leadership, team building, career development, relationship building, athletic performance).
In the four-week “Bioenergetics: Vital Awareness” class, we will be doing an introduction to some fundamental body-mind practices that are core to bioenergetics. Naturally, we’ll be attending to body, moving, breathing, energy – and increasing awareness of both our natural spontaneous selves as well as ways we block knowing and living our true selves.
In that class we’ll also be touching on what I’ve called the Elements of Power™ in various personal development and leadership trainings over the years. These elements reflect five basic principles/tools to return to over and over in the midst of everyday life. The elements are: Presence-Energy, Ground, Heart, Intent, and Openness. In this bioenergetics-focused class, we’ll learn how these elements offer fundamental practices for personal awakening – that is, for recovering our presence, our true selves – and for living and expression who we are more fully.
Self-awareness, self-expression, and self-possession are important in bioenergetic work, and these elements provide a route to these three prized qualities in bioenergetics.
The core principles address the role of presence/awareness, energy and habits in our lives. Presence and conscious use of our attention-awareness is the basic practice, energy is the basic resource, and habit (mental-emotional, bodily) is the basic trap that keeps us from being present in our authentic selves. In being present, and learning where we “interrupt” ourselves, we gain increasing access to the power of our hearts, bodies, and minds and become more empowered in our relationships.
The four fundamental practices are tools we use to: ground, listen to our heart, hone our intention, and to remain open. These tools can be used in a moment-by-moment way in the midst of everyday life, to be present and to rest in our authentic selves, and connect with the world around us. Being in the world, these practices also support us in living fully, happily, and effectively. We can live and build what we care about in the domains of our physical selves, our relationships, and our careers.
Elements of Power™ [icon name=”long-arrow-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Ground Heart Intent Openness Presence/Energy
In another post, I’ll cover some more details of these qualities/practices, and also show how they can be found across many domains (e.g., career work, leadership, teams, martial arts, archetypal psychology). I’ve covered these topics over the years in my in-house organizational work, as well in some seminars I’ve done. By introducing these elements into the bioenergetic work, we firmly ground the principles and practices in your bodily/emotional experience – your felt sense of self. Again, all toward the purpose of being present authentically, increasing your sense of the free flow of life energy – and serving the bioenergetic work in moving toward self-awareness, self-expression, and self-possession.
If you weren’t able to sign up for the four-week class starting February 9th, 2017, there will be some other seminars coming up in the spring that touch on these elements and the bioenergetic work!