Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren is an imposing physical presence. A towering, white-blonde Swede, Lundgren played the menacing Soviet superstar opponent of fictional Rocky Balboa on screen in Rocky IV. Lundgren has built his buff body with martial arts, but he also cultivated and nurtured his presence with therapy and meditation.

As a child, Lundgen suffered physical abuse from his father. To retaliate Lundgren refused to cry or show that he was in pain. “I don’t know if I developed toughness through the beatings because I couldn’t go anywhere or if I already had it. I guess I had some of it prior to that.”

In his late teens Lundgren met a British Karate instructor who became a mentor and introduced him to life in the dojo, a training space for martial arts students. “I learned a lot from him about being a man, being humble, being respectful, and being tough in the dojo and having good manners outside of the dojo.”

Lundgren said he worked hard and went on be Karate champion in Sweden, Europe and Australia. He decided to move to the United States and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Then, by chance, he met another mentor, Sylvester Stallone who picked Lundgren from cattle call to play Soviet boxer Ivan Drago, launching an accidental career in Hollywood.

Although Lundgren was successful in work, he faced problems at home. After 18 years of marriage, Lundgren and his wife divorced, and she moved to Spain with their two daughters. “I was going through a lot of escape behavior; drinking, having extramarital affairs, and basically not being a good husband. My kids were suffering from it, too, and that was the hardest thing, when I had to talk to my wife and kids about it.”

Lundgren had hit a low point until a woman he knew suggested he try psychotherapy. He told her “’‘Are you kidding me? Why would I go to that? It’s for weaklings.’ She suggested meditation and I thought that was a bit mumbo-jumboish, but it turned out that I tried both and they sort of changed my life.”

Psychotherapy helped Lundgren move on from his violent past. He learned that for him drinking, taking drugs and other damaging behaviors are a way to escape emotional pain. In therapy he managed to revisit his past. Gradually the abuse he had suffered lost its grip on him. Lundgren realized that inside he was still a frightened boy fearful of dying in a beating. He needed to step up, embrace that boy, and take care of him. He began to drop his air of invincibility and his need to be perfect to convince his father that he had been wrong in telling Lundgren that he was worthless.

Lundgren, an actor known for his portrayal of a tough, violent fighter, became vulnerable. Each day he practices Southeast Asian Vipassana meditation. “Usually, I start with the love and kindness meditation where basically you forgive everybody that you’ve hurt or has hurt you. For me, I do it every day and it’s like ‘Who did I hurt yesterday? Was it that guy in traffic that I was mean to? Was it someone I didn’t sign an autograph for? Was it my girlfriend? Or that I didn’t call my daughter and ask for her forgiveness?’ I just ask it to myself. Then I forgive myself for things I’ve done to myself. I also forgive people for having hurt me. It could be in business or personal things. Then, I kind of just wish love and kindness on everybody.”