ARTICLESBreathwork: What is it?
Breathwork (or Rebirthing as it has been previously known) is amazing yet quiet simple. It has the capacity to create more aliveness, empowerment, love and presence in your life. It does this by using a specific breathing technique that allows you to work through emotional blockages, change previously unconscious beliefs systems and allow greater flow of energy in your body. It is a little known, yet powerful methodology for change.
One of the main premises Breathwork uses is “the body doesn’t lie”. All your past experiences and everything you need to know is stored in your body, it’s a very accurate instrument for finding the truth of what’s going on in your life, often more so than your mind. Taking the breath down into the body is how this is done in sessions. Your body should be a comfortable relaxed place to be in, if it's not something is going on. Unprocessed feelings from the past result in stiff muscles, tiredness, ungroundedness and a lack of good energy flowing in the body. This is unnecesssary to live with ! Repressed emotions are a hidden, yet very powerful force that can literally pull the body out of alignment and create illnesses if not dealt with, let alone the emotional symptoms. When the body gets sick it’s trying to catch our attention, alert us to something. Clearing the underlying causal emotion out of the system will create a permanent change, not just a temporary band-aid. Through using breathwork We have seen hundreds of physical ailments healed using this process, too many to list. As long as the underlying emotion and belief is dealt with it will heal. Most people want to feel a genuine sense of happiness, aliveness and joy in their lives. It’s difficult to do this if the channels that allow these feelings to flow are clogged. In my experience the same channels that carry negative emotions carry the positive feelings of love, joy and sexuality. Picture it as one artery, if it’s clogged with the negatives there’s no room for the positives to flow freely. A lot of people are just feeling numb or dead without much emotional range, for me this is not what I call living. It’s similar to what a medical drug will do i.e. Limit the amount of pain you feel, but as a consequence you won’t be able to feel your joy. Breathwork clears these emotional channels paving the way for a deep sense of love, joy, and pleasure …. as well as making conscious the beliefs that are creating peoples lives. A sign of a successful person is one who takes responsibility for their thoughts, beliefs and actions - without doing this you cannot be the centre of power in your life. What we believe creates our reality, if we can change our beliefs we will certainly change our reality. This is a great paradigm for change but most often negative beliefs are formed in painful situations, so the beliefs that are creating life then go underground or unconscious with the painful emotions as the human tendency is not to feel them. In a breathwork session once feelings are accepted, beliefs can come into full consciousness, and change then becomes possible. Mentally, Breathwork has a counseling technique that is outstanding, linking the emotions that come up in the sessions with the underlying belief system. Working with both the deeper felt emotions and the belief structures really does have the effect of producing permanent change. Most issues that present in Breathwork can be drawn back to issues related to love and power. Everybody wants to feel more love for themselves and others. They also want to be more in their power or beingness, by this I mean; being able to be truly who they are in all situations, in their full potential. These qualities are usually lost in belief systems we take on from our parents. It’s really important to be super clear of what happened in your relationships with parents, what belief systems you’ve taken on and if anything is unfinished or not in a state of love, otherwise It tends to play out in your current romantic, career and social relationships, and your body. After doing 1000s of breathwork sessions with people its the relationship with parents is the number one thing that trips people up. The belief of “I’m not loved” for example could have the affect of you sabotaging your relationships, not attracting money, having little friends or just not treating your body very well, this can all be happening on an unconscious level. Breathwork will access these areas very quickly allowing you a chance to move through them and create greater love, intimacy, and success from the present moment in your life. The problem is finding out what you’re thinking. Once your thinking has been made fully conscious you can start the process of beginning to change it. Spiritually, many people have profound awakenings in Breathwork sessions, gaining a greater understanding of themselves, the events that have unfolded around them and a true sense of being the creator in their lives. Additionally, knowing oneself allows for clearer choices and direction in life, not fully knowing who you are, or being in your power makes it hard to know what your next steps are and what you want to do in life. Breathwork as a technique is not to be missed in a lifetime, it’s too valuable, and the benefits are too high. Come and try it once and see if you like it and get along with me. The jewels you are looking for are likely located right under your nose .… Breathwork is a great tool for showing you where they are. Contact Martin to book in for a private breathwork session. Or, if you are ready to really address your blockages and heal in the support of a group environment, book into the breathwork weekend retreat! 3rd core energetics type
CORE ENERGETICS/ BREATHWORK 3rd BODY TYPE – MASOCHISTIC
Ever noticed how some people are more grounded in their bodies than others? People who possess qualities of the third body type known as Masochist are the most grounded out of all the Core Energetics character structures. One of their main personal qualities is that they have big humanitarian hearts. The person with a masochist structure has a compact, grounded and thicker set body. There is an excess of energy held in the body or an over containment with not enough energy flow. Unlike the second character structure (Orality) which is depleted, these people can often suffer from anxiety from too much energy in the system, usually sensed and seen around the solar plexus. This structure originates in the autonomous stage in childhood (2-4 yr olds), having had a smothering or dominating parent with whom this child lost their freedom, independence and creativity. A common behavioural characteristic of this structure is a tendency to say “yes “when there’s an inner desire to say “no”. It’s the ‘good girl’ and ‘good boy’ tendency which many of us are familiar with. Whilst having this structure brings the ability to handle a lot of pressure, this can only endure to a certain point, until it eventually explodes in anger and rage. This can leave other people wondering “what the hell just happened?” as these explosions are out of character for the normally kind masochist. You can expect to see a continual smiling face under almost all circumstance from a masochist. As this structure was forming, they really had to do as they were told, such as look after their mother’s feelings in lieu of their own where expressing anger at the parent was either not allowed or outright punished. In breathwork and core energetics we see a lot of initial anger in this style of defence. People with masochist structure have a strong aversion to control and crave freedom. Along with this, they also tend to have a lot of shame around their spontaneity and pleasure as it was curbed or controlled by one or both of the parents in early life. This is usually what they crave and fear at the same time. Life for a masochist could be one holiday after another to try to get away from the control they perceive is being put on them, unless they find a way to redirect emotional energy up and out. Freedom is an inside job, so the aim is to get to the point where they can have freedom to be in their true identity in everyday relationships, fully expressed with the relaxed and integrated capacity for saying no. Unlike the first character structure (Schizoid) which is ungrounded, masochistic is one of the only structures we recommend a strong spiritual practice to. This is so the energy held down in the lower body can be encouraged into the upper body. If you’ve got this structure you probably would benefit by letting off some steam and getting more flow and pleasure into your system! If you’d like to do that, book into a Breathwork or core energetics session or the transformational retreat we are running in November 1st to 3rd. Martin Wilks 2nd Core Energetics Personality / Body Type: Orality
The second character structure in Breathwork and Core energetics has a tendency towards depleted energy; also known as "collapse". They are often tired and seldom have the energy to complete projects, yet ironically have great ideas for them. Their wound is abandonment and they feel they didn’t get enough love and nourishment.
This body this shows through with a concave hollowing in the chest area, with a forward roll of the shoulders. In breathwork sessions this type of person will often just have trouble completing the breathing session. In a core energetics session we work with the musculature around the chest and breathing leading us to the the underlying feelings that are causing the condition. Unlike the first structure, Schizoid, which likes to be away from people, Orality types exhibit a strong underlying need for love; covert or overt. This "need" often drives them to abandon themselves and do whatever it takes to get love from the other. They give so much in relationship, but often get resentful as they can be giving in the hope of getting love back. There is a tendency to keep tabs, or a score on the giving and receiving. Some people with this structure will try to compensate for the need by acting really independent, but the need still exists underneath as a driver for their behaviour. Rather than coming to a relationship topped up and full they tend to look to their partners to fill all the gaps for them. This can result in conflict as unmet needs from the past are projected onto the current partner to fulfil, which is impossible to do. The key process for them is identifying what’s a past need and what’s a true, authentic, realistic current one. They can also suffer from addictive tendencies as they try to fill their unmet needs. NEVER EVER believe in Tiredness. It is an indicator of something else. In breathwork and core energetics sessions we regularly see move through the suppressed feelings and into their aliveness. If you have any suppressed grief, or particularly anger, it will take a lot of your available units of energy to keep it down. Most people have no idea this is happening and its always diagnosed incorrectly by the medical profession and labelled as a condition such as depression or chronic fatigue, etc. This makes it worse for the person and they fear the more energy they exert the less they will have. The opposite has truly worked from what I have seen, over and over. The more we contact the true energy around the abandonment the more energy they literally have. If your emotions don’t flow your life won’t flow. Breathwork sessions can really help with this. In my psychotherapy training and the groups I’ve run over the last 4 years this is the character structure that nobody wants to admit to. Ha ha, the truth is everyone has a little bit of this. If you feel like you exhibit any of these traits, book in for a private breathwork or core energetics session or weekend retreat and we’ll deal with it and show you the method for getting through it! Cheers Martin Wilks 1st Core Energetics Personality / Body Type: Schizoid
The body type is usually tall and thin. The aura is fragmented and their energy is up in their head.
When under pressure the Schizoid body type splits up, or simply has an upward movement of energy. This is an attempt to get away from an earlier feeling, person or event. They are spiritual, intuitive, and connected to God. However, they lack the ability to run a grounded practical life with material possessions and solid relationships. A wounding occurred early in life. The upward split to God, or spirituality can be a defence reflex against being “here”, becaue at some stage they perceived life here as dangerous, no good, or had difficulty being their true personality. Basically life wasn’t a beautiful, safe and loving place to be. In breathwork and core energetics sessions we focuss on keeping them present, grounded and connected to their feelings. I had this structure and it was such a relief in the first week of my training to have Robert Kirby say to me. “Martin your psychic aren’t you, you’re highly intuitive”, “Ahh, I’ve never had anyone say that to me but … yes”. “You’re connected to God and all things. “Ahh yeh” - which is how I’ve always felt. “But the problem is you just can’t run a practical grounded material life, and your relationships suck” (they were his words!). “Ahh yeh!” It was so good to get nailed like this and for someone to just hit me with the truth. I’ve realised that spiritual traditions, or practices that take people out of their body, where one size fits all, can be extremely damaging for this body structure. The healing process with this structure involves getting more grounded and present in your body, developing stronger relationships, whilst keeping the spiritual connection. If anyone can relate, book in for a private core energetics or breathwork session or join one of our breathwork groups/ retreats and we'll be able to help you. Cheers Martin Core Energetics Overview
The premise of Core Energetics is that if every human being could let their ENERGY (life force, love, sexuality and emotions) stream through their bodies as nature intended it they would be happy.
Most of the time it is our conditioning prevents us from doing this. Often as children, we couldn’t feel our hurt, anger, fear, sadness, loss etc. The unfortunate thing about this is when you dam these feelings you also dam your aliveness, sexuality, joy, and your connection to yourself and purpose in life. Along with this there is usually an attached or associated belief, such as “I am not loved”, “I’ll be hurt if I express myself”, “it’s not safe to let myself shine” etc. This is all visible in the body. People are depressed without knowing why. Working in private practice and running groups, I have seen many people come out of depression through the expression of suppressed emotions, and from changing their belief systems. Not only have they come out of depression but have contacted an authentic joy and connection with themselves they have not known before. Core Energetic’s has been broken down into five different body types/structures and can help shed light on all the different styles and shapes of bodies out there. Along with the shape of your body it can offer great insight about how energy flows or is blocked in your body, the level of energy, or lack of, and how you hold yourself (muscular tensions) and why. Along with the physical characteristics there are character/ personality traits that go along with each body type. There are 5 Core Energetic’s Character structures, or body types. 1. Character structure: Schizoid (Get me out of here). The first structure has a difficulty in feeling grounded in the physical, material world. This results in them having difficulty with money, often having a home, material possessions and in general just relating to the rest of the world. They are often spiritual, psychic or intuitive but can’t get their material world together. They sometimes live in ashrams and they often favor being in nature rather than relating to people. Under pressure this person will split upwardly, often to God or spirituality and become ungrounded in their life. Healing : Grounding and building a container for their feelings are the keys to healing this structure. 2. Character structure: Orality (Needy, there’s not enough) This type of person has depletion in their energy field and they’re often tired. They feel like there’s not enough, there's not enough love, money, attention etc. They also feel like they are not enough. This is due to unmet needs with their parents. The key word with this type of person is depletion. They lack the energy to complete tasks and to carry their life’s dreams to fruition, are often unemployed and suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome or depression. They often act needy in their relationships, and are prone to co- dependency and addictions. They feel that if they ask for love and it is given, it might not be real, but if you don’t ask for it, you might not get it at all? Under pressure this person tends to collapse, and needs help. Healing : This type of person needs to learn how to top there own energy system up, To take care of their own energy and come to a relationship with a full cup. One of the things we use to do this is a strong exercise routine. Emotionally facing the feelings of anger, hurt and sadness over the abandonment around their emotional needs will heal this structure. 3. Character structure: Masochistic (Big-hearted) These types of people have a more grounded body structure but can get to dense in it. These types of people have a stocky, thicker set body and the energy moves down more than the other types. They are well grounded. This structure is developed around the age of 3 where the child is controlled or suppressed, usually by the mother. Because of this conditioning, later in life they often say yes when they want to say no as they had to do as they were told a lot, and be good boys or girls. They often have a pent up energy in them and want to explode. They suffer from anxiety but ironically they have big, very giving humanitarian hearts. Under pressure they can get a task done but will often resent you for asking them as they often just say yes and do as their told. They can handle an amazing amount of pressure before they will explode. Much more than any of the other character structures. Healing : usually involves letting out some of the pent up rage, realizing they are no longer controlled in life as with the parents and are free to make choices and let their energy flow through their bodies. 4. Character defense: Psychopathic (Leader) These people are usually great leaders, but their blessing and curse is that they need to control others and don’t trust. Their history is that of being seduced and betrayed by one parent or put up by one parent and then put down by the other. A typical example of this would be an oedipal triangle where the boy is put up by the mother and then put down by the father. A key word is they don’t know how to trust and just surrender into being themselves, they are often puffed up and full of themselves or feeling like absolutely nothing and go between the two. The body is V shaped in men with thin legs and bigger chest and pear shaped in women with narrow shoulders and wider hips. Both have piercing eyes. Healing : Trust and surrender into being themselves without puffing up or adopting a role are key words. The healing results in them having a humility and trust where they are not glorified out of proportion and their not absolute rubbish either, they have a healthy assessment of themselves. 5. Character structure number: Rigid (Achievier) The fifth character structure feels like their love was rejected by the parent of the opposite sex. Because of this they tend to keep their hearts closed and find it difficult to love. Their bodies are healthy, well proportioned and often beautiful. However, the problem is the energy doesn’t go into the heart due to the protection and they are prone to heart pelvis splits meaning they are often having affairs or having love in one place and sexuality in another. Rigid’s tend to have a great pool of energy in the sexual area; this is because it is safer to use their pelvis than risk the rejection of their hearts. It is for this reason that they tend to lead with their pelvises. They have great resumes and tend to be able to achieve a lot in life but have to be careful as they can use their capacity for doing, or getting busy as a defense to go over feelings. Healing : Healing occurs with the willingness to love and face the rejection of their love by the opposite sex parent. It also results from them being able to have love and sexuality in the same place at the same time without splitting them. SUMMARY The five body types and accompanying personalities form the basis of the core energetic model and are the typical ways people use the musculature of our bodies to defend against feeling as children. Most people have one main defense structure and possibly a secondary one. Working with the structures requires a very different approach for each structure, its invaluable knowledge and makes it easy to pave a course of action for each individual client. Any issue can be brought to a session. If I’m working in a counseling or Breathwork context the core energetic models will still be part of the frame work I’m working in. We then energize the issue and work with the musculature of the body with different processes to unlock the body to allow more streaming of positive energy and feeling. BENEFITS OF CORE ENERGETICS INCLUDE:
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Articles List
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FIVE BODY TYPES REVEAL YOUR APPROACH TO LIFE
by Martin Wilks & Irena Lo Bue
As human beings we love to watch people. It’s in our nature and part of our relating with one another. We know what we are attracted to, what we are afraid of, intrigued by or turned off by at a glance. The simple observation of someone’s body reveals a lot of information about them and about ourselves. Studies show that body language amounts to about 80% of our overall communication - and yet most of that is unconscious. We all know the feeling of listening to someone whose words and body language are not quite aligned and that sense of incongruence it gives us.
Think of your body as a living library of all your lifetime experiences.
Your body emanates your state of health, energy levels, how comfortable you are in your power, sexuality and truth. It also reflects your emotional flow, joy and capacity for loving relationships, or not. The body energetically signals this to the world, which gets communicated back in a constant loop.
We’ve all been wounded in some way, it’s just a part of life, as are the opportunities that life keeps giving us to inspire our healing. The wisdom of the wound holds far more than just pain. Every heartbreak, loss, untruth or boundary crossed for example, brings us face to face with the areas of relating that we struggle in, but also reveals where our greatest growth and even life purpose lies. Knowing about our body type and how it was formed deepens our compassion and understanding for ourselves, and helps us enter the journey of healing so that we can step into life more fully and feel our scope as human beings.
When we have experienced emotional pain, there’s almost always a compensatory mechanism in the body for avoiding that emotional pain. This actually shapes the body’s energy and physical form until it becomes a pattern. This in turn gets integrated with a corresponding trait in the personality. Ironically, the potential for the greatest growth in our lives almost always lies within the parts of us that are most tightly held and deeply defended. It’s facing that with love and courage that makes all the difference.
One of main tenets of breathwork is this: the body doesn’t lie. We find as therapists that charging up, moving or simply observing someone’s body provides us with a more accurate picture of what’s really going on, regardless of what it may outwardly seem like. We look at a person’s level of energy, how they move and particularly how they breathe!
As frozen or blocked energy and the beliefs that are held in place are released out of the body, it creates space allowing for new thoughts, good feelings, attitudes to life and ways of being to take root and flower. Without this release, we find that affirmations, new thoughts or lifestyle changes just bounce off the blocks in the body.
What’s evident in working with bodies is that every individual person requires a different approach to healing, specific to their body type and to their character.
Through the work of Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos, five main body types and corresponding personalities have been identified. These body types reveal both gifts and ways in which we defend against emotional stress.
We all have aspects of each of them and there are combinations as well, but most people tend to find one or two body types that stand out most. This is because we developed one style of relating or defending with mum and one with dad in our formative years. If, for instance, one parent was controlling and the other absent, we will have a different way of relating to each of them. This forms part of our relation to the world later in life. We also see people work on one defense for a period of time until it’s resolved and then other aspects of the personality emerge. One will usually be more prevalent at any given time and when doing transformative work that’s the one we focus on!
Combining body knowledge with breath is a powerful mix. Breathwork reactivates your self-healing capacity…when you experience yourself on a deeper level than the personality or ego, something genuine and profound starts to come to the forefront of your life. Call it the real you.
Although volumes have been written about each body type, here’s a brief encapsulation. Enjoy!
THE FIVE BODY TYPES
1. Ungrounded / Fragmented
The essence of this body type is a lack of grounding and a feeling that being here is unsafe. This character is highly spiritual yet has difficulty manifesting a practical, successful material life.
Body – Usually tall, thin and wiry, fear in the eyes, asymmetrical, weak joints
Energy – Moves up and out, splits off to spirituality, fragments
Belief – It’s not safe to be here
· Detached and difficulty being present; reclusive
· Mask of serenity
· Trouble with money, committing to life and long-term relationships
· Weak boundaries; unable to maintain sense of self in social settings
· Intuitive and psychic with a connection to nature
This body type will achieve blissful states of meditation, a seemingly peaceful life out in nature, yet what they crave is a sense of ease and safety in belonging to humanity and fully occupying their body.
2. Collapsed / Needy
The essence of this character is not getting their love needs met. They feel deprived. Though they have great ideas, there’s an overall depletion in their energy and they lack the conviction to follow their dreams to fulfilment. The issue is abandonment and lack of nurturing.
Body – Collapsed chest, sloping shoulders, lack of muscle tone
Energy – Depleted, lack of ‘charge’
Belief – There’s not enough for me, I’m not enough, I can’t do it on my own
· Needy or falsely independent
· Sell themselves out in order to be loved
· Resentful when they give too much; keep score of the giving and receiving in relationships; co-dependency
· Can talk a lot yet struggle to listen to others
· Depression and chronic fatigue
This body type heals by building and maintaining a charge of energy in the body through exercise, taking responsibility for their happiness, standing on their own two feet and carrying their dreams through to fruition. This is how they come to a relationship with a full cup.
3. Compressed
The essence of this character is holding down and feeling trapped. The person’s desires and spontaneity have been stifled and can not be expressed - they often say yes when they mean no and they struggle with the experience of enjoyment and freedom.
Body – Compacted, stocky, grounded, solid muscle
Energy – Downward and compressed, holding down
Belief – It’s dangerous to follow my pleasurable urges
· Pleasing; kind face; good girl / good boy
· Big hearts
· Complain about being controlled but have difficulty living with freedom
· Can handle a lot of pressure but may eventually explode
· Stubborn
· Closed upper chakras; lacking spiritual connection
This body type will have a strong network of loving friends yet what they long for is total release of the pressure they feel inside and genuine freedom and pleasure in their being.
4. Upwards / Controlling
The essence of this character is a feeling of betrayal, hence needing to maintain control in order to stay safe. They develop a false image of themselves and a false sense of power. There is a lack of trust. Later in life they long to have the experience of being real without the mask of power and control.
Body – V shaped torso, large chest, fine ankles, prominent shoulders, piercing eyes, women can also have small shoulders with wide hips
Energy – most energy is in the upper half of the body, ‘puffed up’
Belief – I can’t trust
· Often leaders or entrepreneurs
· Control and dominate, can be aggressive
· Situations are win/lose; strong need to be right
· Unable to be vulnerable; hyper-alert
· Suspicious they are being manipulated
This body type will be powerful in their professional life yet always maintain emotional safety, and hence are often lonely. The regret is that their identity is based on something false, yet what they long for is a real experience of themselves with others and the ability to trust in life.
5. Balanced without heart
The essence of this character is success in all areas of life except love. They fear and avoid vulnerability. The issue: their love has been rejected. They have a capacity to receive love but giving love is dangerous. They tend to have love without sex or sex without love and rarely do the two come together. They often come into therapy because of an affair or because of a lack of fulfilment.
Body – symmetrical, healthy, head held high, stiff posture
Energy – balanced and flowing around the body but not in the heart, high pelvic charge, externalised, withholding
Belief – It’s not safe to give my love
· Use ‘doing’ as a way of avoiding feeling an inner life
· Great achievers; successful lives and great resumés
· Perfectionistic as a cover for feeling empty; hoping to get love
· Separation between ‘hot sex’ and love
· Lead with pelvic energy rather than heart
This body type can tick all the boxes of outer success but will not be satisfied until their love and sex are integrated and they feel full from the inside out. Surrendering in relationship is the key.
Martin Wilks and Irena Lo Bue, Architects of Joy.
Martin Wilks is a breathwork and body psychotherapy practitioner living and working in Sydney. Irena Lo Bue is a breath and bodyworker living and working in Sydney. Both are passionate about body oriented psychotherapy, personal responsibility and helping people have radically fulfilling lives and relationships.
Together they make Architects of Joy hosting The Big Shift retreats on the outskirts of Sydney and running the One Year Intention Program based in Bondi, Sydney.
by Martin Wilks & Irena Lo Bue
As human beings we love to watch people. It’s in our nature and part of our relating with one another. We know what we are attracted to, what we are afraid of, intrigued by or turned off by at a glance. The simple observation of someone’s body reveals a lot of information about them and about ourselves. Studies show that body language amounts to about 80% of our overall communication - and yet most of that is unconscious. We all know the feeling of listening to someone whose words and body language are not quite aligned and that sense of incongruence it gives us.
Think of your body as a living library of all your lifetime experiences.
Your body emanates your state of health, energy levels, how comfortable you are in your power, sexuality and truth. It also reflects your emotional flow, joy and capacity for loving relationships, or not. The body energetically signals this to the world, which gets communicated back in a constant loop.
We’ve all been wounded in some way, it’s just a part of life, as are the opportunities that life keeps giving us to inspire our healing. The wisdom of the wound holds far more than just pain. Every heartbreak, loss, untruth or boundary crossed for example, brings us face to face with the areas of relating that we struggle in, but also reveals where our greatest growth and even life purpose lies. Knowing about our body type and how it was formed deepens our compassion and understanding for ourselves, and helps us enter the journey of healing so that we can step into life more fully and feel our scope as human beings.
When we have experienced emotional pain, there’s almost always a compensatory mechanism in the body for avoiding that emotional pain. This actually shapes the body’s energy and physical form until it becomes a pattern. This in turn gets integrated with a corresponding trait in the personality. Ironically, the potential for the greatest growth in our lives almost always lies within the parts of us that are most tightly held and deeply defended. It’s facing that with love and courage that makes all the difference.
One of main tenets of breathwork is this: the body doesn’t lie. We find as therapists that charging up, moving or simply observing someone’s body provides us with a more accurate picture of what’s really going on, regardless of what it may outwardly seem like. We look at a person’s level of energy, how they move and particularly how they breathe!
As frozen or blocked energy and the beliefs that are held in place are released out of the body, it creates space allowing for new thoughts, good feelings, attitudes to life and ways of being to take root and flower. Without this release, we find that affirmations, new thoughts or lifestyle changes just bounce off the blocks in the body.
What’s evident in working with bodies is that every individual person requires a different approach to healing, specific to their body type and to their character.
Through the work of Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos, five main body types and corresponding personalities have been identified. These body types reveal both gifts and ways in which we defend against emotional stress.
We all have aspects of each of them and there are combinations as well, but most people tend to find one or two body types that stand out most. This is because we developed one style of relating or defending with mum and one with dad in our formative years. If, for instance, one parent was controlling and the other absent, we will have a different way of relating to each of them. This forms part of our relation to the world later in life. We also see people work on one defense for a period of time until it’s resolved and then other aspects of the personality emerge. One will usually be more prevalent at any given time and when doing transformative work that’s the one we focus on!
Combining body knowledge with breath is a powerful mix. Breathwork reactivates your self-healing capacity…when you experience yourself on a deeper level than the personality or ego, something genuine and profound starts to come to the forefront of your life. Call it the real you.
Although volumes have been written about each body type, here’s a brief encapsulation. Enjoy!
THE FIVE BODY TYPES
1. Ungrounded / Fragmented
The essence of this body type is a lack of grounding and a feeling that being here is unsafe. This character is highly spiritual yet has difficulty manifesting a practical, successful material life.
Body – Usually tall, thin and wiry, fear in the eyes, asymmetrical, weak joints
Energy – Moves up and out, splits off to spirituality, fragments
Belief – It’s not safe to be here
· Detached and difficulty being present; reclusive
· Mask of serenity
· Trouble with money, committing to life and long-term relationships
· Weak boundaries; unable to maintain sense of self in social settings
· Intuitive and psychic with a connection to nature
This body type will achieve blissful states of meditation, a seemingly peaceful life out in nature, yet what they crave is a sense of ease and safety in belonging to humanity and fully occupying their body.
2. Collapsed / Needy
The essence of this character is not getting their love needs met. They feel deprived. Though they have great ideas, there’s an overall depletion in their energy and they lack the conviction to follow their dreams to fulfilment. The issue is abandonment and lack of nurturing.
Body – Collapsed chest, sloping shoulders, lack of muscle tone
Energy – Depleted, lack of ‘charge’
Belief – There’s not enough for me, I’m not enough, I can’t do it on my own
· Needy or falsely independent
· Sell themselves out in order to be loved
· Resentful when they give too much; keep score of the giving and receiving in relationships; co-dependency
· Can talk a lot yet struggle to listen to others
· Depression and chronic fatigue
This body type heals by building and maintaining a charge of energy in the body through exercise, taking responsibility for their happiness, standing on their own two feet and carrying their dreams through to fruition. This is how they come to a relationship with a full cup.
3. Compressed
The essence of this character is holding down and feeling trapped. The person’s desires and spontaneity have been stifled and can not be expressed - they often say yes when they mean no and they struggle with the experience of enjoyment and freedom.
Body – Compacted, stocky, grounded, solid muscle
Energy – Downward and compressed, holding down
Belief – It’s dangerous to follow my pleasurable urges
· Pleasing; kind face; good girl / good boy
· Big hearts
· Complain about being controlled but have difficulty living with freedom
· Can handle a lot of pressure but may eventually explode
· Stubborn
· Closed upper chakras; lacking spiritual connection
This body type will have a strong network of loving friends yet what they long for is total release of the pressure they feel inside and genuine freedom and pleasure in their being.
4. Upwards / Controlling
The essence of this character is a feeling of betrayal, hence needing to maintain control in order to stay safe. They develop a false image of themselves and a false sense of power. There is a lack of trust. Later in life they long to have the experience of being real without the mask of power and control.
Body – V shaped torso, large chest, fine ankles, prominent shoulders, piercing eyes, women can also have small shoulders with wide hips
Energy – most energy is in the upper half of the body, ‘puffed up’
Belief – I can’t trust
· Often leaders or entrepreneurs
· Control and dominate, can be aggressive
· Situations are win/lose; strong need to be right
· Unable to be vulnerable; hyper-alert
· Suspicious they are being manipulated
This body type will be powerful in their professional life yet always maintain emotional safety, and hence are often lonely. The regret is that their identity is based on something false, yet what they long for is a real experience of themselves with others and the ability to trust in life.
5. Balanced without heart
The essence of this character is success in all areas of life except love. They fear and avoid vulnerability. The issue: their love has been rejected. They have a capacity to receive love but giving love is dangerous. They tend to have love without sex or sex without love and rarely do the two come together. They often come into therapy because of an affair or because of a lack of fulfilment.
Body – symmetrical, healthy, head held high, stiff posture
Energy – balanced and flowing around the body but not in the heart, high pelvic charge, externalised, withholding
Belief – It’s not safe to give my love
· Use ‘doing’ as a way of avoiding feeling an inner life
· Great achievers; successful lives and great resumés
· Perfectionistic as a cover for feeling empty; hoping to get love
· Separation between ‘hot sex’ and love
· Lead with pelvic energy rather than heart
This body type can tick all the boxes of outer success but will not be satisfied until their love and sex are integrated and they feel full from the inside out. Surrendering in relationship is the key.
Martin Wilks and Irena Lo Bue, Architects of Joy.
Martin Wilks is a breathwork and body psychotherapy practitioner living and working in Sydney. Irena Lo Bue is a breath and bodyworker living and working in Sydney. Both are passionate about body oriented psychotherapy, personal responsibility and helping people have radically fulfilling lives and relationships.
Together they make Architects of Joy hosting The Big Shift retreats on the outskirts of Sydney and running the One Year Intention Program based in Bondi, Sydney.
