Alexander Lowen Quotes

QUOTES ABOUT:

Sexuality is not a leisure or part-time activity. It is a way of being.

Alexander Lowen
Way, Leisure, Sexuality

A person who doesn't breathe deeply reduces the life of his body. If he doesn't move freely, he
restricts the life of his body. If he doesn't feel fully, he narrows the life of his body. And if his selfexpression is constricted, he limits the life of his body.
Alexander Lowen
Moving, Self, Expression

The feeling of love is a rich feeling, but the expression of love in word or deed is a joy.
Alexander Lowen
Love Is, Expression, Joy

While the repression of a memory is a psychological process, the suppression of feeling is

accomplished by deadening a part of the body or reducing its motility so that feeling is
diminished. The repression of the memory is dependent upon and related to the suppression of
feeling, for as long as the feeling persists, the memory remains vivid. Suppression entails the
development of chronic muscular tension in those areas of the body where the feeling would be
experienced. In the case of sexual feeling, this tension is found in and about the abdomen and
pelvis
Alexander Lowen

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Memories, Long, Feelings

Change is possible, but it must start with self-acceptance.

Alexander Lowen
Acceptance, Compassion, Self

We live in an ocean of air like fish in a body of water. By our breathing we are attuned to our
atmosphere. If we inhibit our breathing we isolate ourselves from the medium in which we exist.
In all Oriental and mystic philosophies, the breath holds the secret to the highest bliss.
Alexander Lowen
Philosophy, Ocean, Air

Without awareness of bodily feeling and attitude, a person becomes split into a disembodied
spirit and a disenchanted body.
Alexander Lowen
Attitude, Feelings, Splits

Faith is a quality of being: of being in touch with oneself, with life, and with the universe. It is a
sense of belonging to one's community, to one's country and to the earth. Above all it is a feeling
of being grounded in one's body, in one's humanity, and in one's animal nature. It can be all of
these things because it is a manifestation of life, an expression of the living force that unites all
beings. It is a biological phenomenon and not a psychic creation.
Alexander Lowen
Country, Animal, Expression

Mature love is not a surrender of the self but a surrender to the self. The ego surrenders its
hegemony of the personality to the heart, but in this surrender it is not annihilated. Rather it is
strengthened because its roots in the body are nourished by the joy that the body feels.
Alexander Lowen
Heart, Love Is, Self

Crying, that is, sobbing is the earliest and deepest way to release tension. Infants can cry almost
from the moment of birth, and do so easily following every stress that produces a state of tension
in the body... Human beings are the only creatures who can react in this way to stress and
tension. Most probably, they are the only ones who need this form of release.
Alexander Lowen
Stress, Needs, Body
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Above all, faith is grounded in one's body, in one's humanity, and in one's animal nature. It is an
biological phenomenon and not a psychic creation
Alexander Lowen
Animal, Psychics, Feelings

Love is the feeling that emanates from the heart and extends through the blood to every cell of
the body.
Alexander Lowen
Love, Heart, Cells

Spirit is not a mystic concept. The spirit of a person is manifest in her aliveness, brightness of his
eyes, in the resonance of her voice and in the ease and gracefulness of his movements. These
qualities are related to and stem from a high level of energy in the body... Sensing the harmony
between the internal pulsation of our body and that in the universe, we feel identified with the
universal, with God. We are like tuning forks vibrating at the same pitch
Alexander Lowen
Eye, Voice, Quality

Because we are afraid of life, we seek to control or master it.

Alexander Lowen
Masters, Afraid Of Life

Despair is the only cure for illusion.

Alexander Lowen
Despair, Illusion, Cures

The primary nature of every human being is to be open to life and love. Being guarded, armoured,
distrustful and enclosed is second nature in our culture. It is the means we adopt to protect
ourselves against being hurt, but when such attitudes become characterological or structured in
the personality, they constitute a more severe hurt and create a greater crippling than the one
originally suffered.
Alexander Lowen
Hurt, Life And Love, Attitude

It is only by making the past alive again for a person that a true growth in the present is
facilitated. If the past is cut off, the future does not exist.
Alexander Lowen
Cutting, Past, Growth

Beneath the seemingly rational exterior of our lives is a fear of insanity. We dare not question the
values by which we live or rebel against the roles we play for fear of putting our sanity in doubt.
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Alexander Lowen
Depression, Play, Insanity

As one grows older, the sense of separateness is slowly reduced. Old people do not live on an ego
level. Their concerns are not about their individuality but about the river of life, the family, the
community, the nation, people, animals, nature, life. They can die easily if they are assured that
life will continue positively, for they feel part of the river again, and soon they will be part of the
ocean. When they are very old, they no longer belong to our time and space, but to all time and all
space.
Alexander Lowen
Ocean, Animal, Rivers

Are we not witnessing a situation where children are conciously rejecting their parents' value
despite love and devotion given to them? The present situation has arisen because parents have
failed to transmit a sustaining faith to their children. The basic reason for this failure is that the
parents themselves lacked faith. Without faith, their love was an image not a reality, a statement
of words not an expression of feelings
Alexander Lowen
Love, Children, Reality

Fear is another emotion that is strongly suppressed. We cannot afford to be afraid, and so we
don't allow ourselves to sense and feel the fear within us. We lower our brows to deny it, set our
jaws to defy it, and smile to deceive ourselves. But inwardly we remain scared to death.
Alexander Lowen
Fear, Emotion, Scared

Death is the fate no one can escape. The question, then, is, How does one die? A person can die
like a hero or like a coward. The difference is that the hero can face death without fear, whereas
the coward can't.
Alexander Lowen
Death, Hero, Fate

Life is not a mixture of matter and energy but energy in matter, bound in such a way that
dissociation is impossible so long as the living process continues.
Alexander Lowen
Life, Long, Mixtures

No one is exempt from the rule that learning occurs through recognition of error.
Alexander Lowen
Errors, Recognition

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

The modern individual is committed to being successful, not to being a person. He belongs rightly
to the action generation whose motto is do more but feel less.
Alexander Lowen
Successful, Generations, Action

Page 1 of 2
Prev
FACEBOOK

Next
TWITTER

GOOGLEPLUS

EMAIL

LINKEDIN

You May Also Like:

Wilhelm Reich

Frederick Salomon Perls

Barbara Brennan

Carl Jung

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Carl Rogers

Erich Fromm

Peter A. Levine

Sigmund Freud

Stanislav Grof
Melanie Klein

Eric Berne
Roberto Assagioli

Bert Hellinger

Alfred Adler

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Alice Miller
Charlotte Selver
Herbert Marcuse

Eugene Gendlin
Donald Woods Winnicott
Anna Freud

Alexander Lowen

Born: December 23, 1910

Died: October 28, 2008
Cite this Page: Citation

Get Social with AzQuotes

Join us on Facebook
Join us on Twitter
Join us on Google+

Popular Topics
Inspirational

Love

Funny

Success

Friendship

Life

Motivational

Wisdom

Leadership

Dream

Positive

Freedom

Knowledge

Happiness

Authors
Topics
Picture Quotes
Quote of the Day

Javascript and RSS feeds

WordPress plugin

About Us
Submit Quotes
Terms

converted by Web2PDFConvert.com