Can you train your emotions like a muscle through PEM’s bioelectric approach to emotional movement and modern neuroscience? We’ll explore.
In major cities, people train everything—mindset, core strength, palate, even sleep cycles.
But can you train your emotions like a muscle?
It’s a question that hits hard. Emotional strength feels abstract, even mystical, like something you “work on” in therapy or yoga.
But the Perdekamp Emotional Method (PEM) turns that idea inside out.
Instead of treating emotions as thoughts or memories, PEM explains them as bioelectric movement patterns—physical actions the body can learn, strengthen, and release. As founder Stephan Perdekamp says,
“emotions are something biological, something mechanical that we can learn, can practice, and that we also can unravel.”
Stephan Perdekamp
And that changes how we understand emotional intensity, burnout, and even safety.
How “bioelectric emotions” challenge what we think we know
In PEM, emotions start with tiny electrical impulses in the nervous system—“access points” that trigger full-body movement patterns.
Stephan describes them as:
“distinct locations that we call triggers,
which if activated, create complex movement patterns through the whole body.
And those movement patterns are emotions.”
This is a radical shift from the old belief that emotion = memory + imagination. Instead, PEM argues that emotion is movement first, meaning you can train it the same way you train balance or coordination.
For anyone who’s ever tried breathwork in Aspen or mindfulness in San Francisco, the appeal is instant.
It’s practical.
It’s physical.
It doesn’t require unearthing old wounds before a 10 a.m. call time. And surprisingly, there’s relatability here too—because who hasn’t wished they could dial down fear before a pitch meeting or dial up joy at a Berlin gallery opening?
Modern neuroscience agrees on at least one point: the body can create emotional states without conscious thought. The vagus nerve, the limbic system, and peripheral bioelectric signaling all support this idea. (For a deeper overview, see the Harvard Health guide on the mind-body connection.)
Sarah Victoria describes the performer’s experience like this:
“you don’t actually play the emotion.
You have the emotion in the body because you’ve trained it already…
It’s this incredible freedom.”
Freedom goes a long way in cities where life moves fast.
Why emotional “training” matters in a burnout generation
PEM’s science doesn’t just apply to actors. It applies to anyone caught in the modern burnout loop—tech, policy, nightlife in Vegas, creative pressure.
According to Stephan:
“stress is basically a jammed system of fight and flight responses.”
Fear wants to run. Aggression wants to push through. Both patterns tug on the same muscles. Nothing completes. Energy drains.
PEM tackles burnout by separating and training each pattern so the nervous system stops jamming. Actors use it, but so do non-actors in Europe and Australia. Sarah puts it bluntly:
“the amount of stress I could get rid of and release from my body in the past 20 years…
I could not do the amount of workload that I have if I would not have the exercises.”
When emotions stop hijacking your body, life gets more fun-loving, more flavorful—yes, even when the work schedule is brutal.
And there’s another layer of relatability: if you’ve ever felt “heavy” walking into work, Stephan explains why:
“everything’s heavy…
it’s really like you’re carrying another body…
your arm has double weight.”
That description hits home in every city with long commutes and longer ambitions.
The science—and skepticism—around training emotion
The idea of “bioelectric emotion training” sounds futuristic, but PEM has been studied. An Austrian test confirmed that activating PEM’s access points produced measurable emotional responses:
“the body actually reacts with all the symptoms of emotional engagement.”
Still, neuroscience is an evolving field. PEM’s claims push into territory that raises good questions:
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Can emotional patterns truly be stored as discrete physical “movement sets”?
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How much is universal biology, and how much is cultural learning?
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Where do thoughts and cognition fit in?
What makes the conversation compelling is that PEM doesn’t claim magic.
Sarah emphasizes:
“we’re not doing any kind of chakra work…
We’re just working purely with the mechanics of the body and the nervous system directly.”
And Stephan clarifies:
“there’s no voodoo needed…
we address the biologically built nervous system.”
Whether you’re curious, skeptical, or somewhere in between, this blend of biology, craft, and body-based learning has real flavor—and feels surprisingly fun-loving to explore.
FAQ: Can You Train Your Emotions Like a Muscle?
Q: Does PEM replace therapy?
A: No. PEM is a physical method, not psychotherapy. It works with movement patterns, not memories.
Q: Is this “outside-in” acting?
A: Stefan says, “no, it’s not accurate that it’s an outside-in approach.” Early muscle work is just a hallway into the deeper electrical system.
Q: Can non-actors really use PEM?
A: Yes. According to Stefan, friends and family asked to join because actors became “so calm now… so cool now.” PEM now trains non-actors worldwide.
The future of emotional training
So—can you train your emotions like a muscle? PEM makes a compelling case that you can train the physical side of emotion the same way you train core strength or breath control. And in a world that demands more creativity, more resilience, and more fun-loving energy, that feels not only possible but necessary.
If you’re curious about emotional “mechanics,” or want to explore the way science, performance, and wellness intersect, PEM offers a new doorway. Step through, experiment, and see what happens when your nervous system starts working with you, not against you.
Whether you can train your emotions like a muscle through PEM’s bioelectric approach to emotional movement and modern neuroscience.
