Basic Bowen Philosophy

From: The Bowen Canada Newsletter, March 2004

Written by: Liz Corbett

The feel of the Bowen move is one of gentleness, and I see that my Bowen philosophy follows that same path. Bowen therapy is a gentle modality with an innate power to initiate healing.

The Bowen attitude is also one of gentleness, cooperation, and unity, not aggression, competition, or power. There is nothing forceful about Bowen and when our lives are consistent with that philosophy, and then we can also initiate our own healing.

The Bowen move includes five parts: Contact, Slack, Challenge, Roll and Pause.

What if we applied those five principles to our lives?

Contact

It is important to make contact with yourself, to know yourself and to honour yourself for the unique being that you are. Stick with yourself, believe in yourself and stay with your conviction.

Slack

Give yourself some slack; we tend to be very hard on ourselves. Taking a look backward also gives us an opportunity to see where we’ve come from and help us to determine where we want to go next. Pulling back and observing offers a time for premonition and to prepare for things to come.

Challenge

Challenges are opportunities for growth and change. When things get rough ask yourself, what is this situation trying to tell me, what can I learn from this? Give yourself that little nudge to go where you’ve been hesitant to go. It may help to untie the knots in your life.

Roll

Don’t fight everything, learn to roll with the punches and pick your battles. Going over or around an obstacle may be the longer route and it may help avoid the struggle of going through it. Sometimes we take on problems that we don’t own. Roll with it, go with the flow and let things happen.

Pause

Stop for a moment to see where you are, how you feel and get a sense of what happened. Meditate.

Take time for yourself, do things you like to do, just for you. Play.

Find balance in the giving and receiving. Marvel at the uniqueness of you. Ponder.

We can learn a lot from that basic Bowen move, and if we apply that philosophy to our lives we then can heal ourselves in the same gentle manner.

 

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