This article is a theoretical-methodological work, product of more than 20 years of empirical research in education. It presents an onto-epistemological reflection on the construction of scientific knowledge. In the introduction, concepts are developed around knowing and living, based on the biological theory of knowledge. A historical development of the concept of experience is presented. Next, underestimation of the concept of experience in the scientific field, in the sense of what one has lived through (vivencia), is reviewed, in relation to overvaluation of the concept of experience, in the sense of what one has learned from living. The need to give new meaning to experience and incorporate vivencia as integrated methods in the process of constructing knowledge are pointed out. Finally, specific contributions are made to the field of research from a perspective that integrates reflexivity, the emotions and the body on a methodological level.