So I have been reading more about body psychotherapy and more cognitive therapy (at the same time...hehe), and they both really come from a totally different place.

Body Psychotherapy:
Traditional "talk therapies" attempt to change your emotions or behavior by changing your thoughts (i.e. through the left brain). Body psychotherapy works in the reverse, by using the body and your emotions to change how your nervous system responds. That is, it works through the right brain, not the left.
You see, although thoughts can marginally change our emotions, it is far more efficient - in terms of the way the brain is designed to work "from the bottom up". Body psychotherapy enables the brain to update its emotional wiring naturally (i.e. using the right brain), rather than willfully trying to impose change "from the top down" using thoughts (i.e. through the left brain).
If you think of the times you've tried to make yourself feel (or not feel) a certain way, you'll see that using a left-brain strategy to change a right-brain-based emotion is a prescription for futility.

CBT:
Our emotions and behaviors result mainly from our beliefs and self-talk statements rather than from the actual unpleasant events and situations in our lives. Basically, an event happens, we hold our rational or irrational beliefs about it in relation to ourselves/others/the world...and then the consequences of how we feel happen. We should replace our irrational emotions (self-destructive) with rational emotions, ones that help oneself and are less harming. The basic tenet is that we cause our own emotions, not the events.

What is interesting is I see merit in both. I know like life, there is not one black and white answer...but these therapies are two totally different theories. BUT, I have such a hard time with the theory that if you smile long enough, you'll be happy. I get the point, that if you ACT happy long enough, your brain will change and you will start feeling happy.

That is in my opinion, the simplest way to put how CBT works. That you recognize your negative thoughts, change them to positive ones...and if you work on it hard and long enough, you will come to believe the positive ones.

What I don't get is why you suddenly would believe "I have great qualities" suddenly? Just because you told yourself so? I think it can sort of work, but there was a reason why you thought of yourself negatively in the first place, and how do you un-learn that?

Body psychotherapy to me is all "new-agey." And I AM more new agey! I find it interesting that the body holds all the memories, and that it was felt first and then you ascribed thoughts to it. I certainly know where I hold my stress/anxiety. When I am upset, my T always asks me where I am feeling it, and I always say "My heart is racing and I feel like I'm going to throw up." So, according to this theory, if you change the nervous system, you will change your thoughts/feelings.

So....lets hear thoughts on this!