Читать книгу The Secret of Happy Parents: How to Stay in Love as a Couple and True to Yourself - Steve Biddulph - Страница 29

Julie Henderson, the bioenergetic therapist who taught us these levels of connection, says that men traditionally have ‘closed’ (shielded, unresponsive) hearts and ‘open’ (active, energised) genitals, while women traditionally have ‘closed’ genitals and ‘open’ hearts.

Men of the older, stiff-upper-lip generation, would often experience some alarm at the powerful and unsettling emotions that arise, whether it be through falling in love, being present at a birth of a child or saying goodbye to someone forever. In short, these men needed to gain the softening that comes from an open heart.

Older women usually experienced loving feelings as a matter of course, but were often stunned and delighted at the energetic glow and sense of satisfaction that accompanied their first really good sexual experiences. In short, these women needed to gain the power that comes from ‘owning’ your pelvis, considered in both ancient yoga and modern bioenergetics to be the energy source of assertiveness and will.

As men became more ‘feelingful’, and women more assured, healthy and strong contact between the genders became a possibility. Some great marriages emerged in the latter part of the twentieth century. In fact, you can be sure that some couples have always forged equal relationships through sheer strength of character – in biblical times, in Shakespeare’s time and in every epoch. The difference in the late twentieth century was that the culture began to support this as a general principle.

Things were looking great – except that the pendulum just kept on swinging!