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It
is a way of being present in your body to your life`s experience
in the here and now. Focusing moves to a level that is deeper
than thinking, feeling or body sensations, to the edge of
awareness between consciousness and unconsciousness. It is a way
of listening to your body that can lead to a resolution of your
issues that can be noticed physically.
What
is the body feel, the felt sense, of all about that
relationship, situation, issue or creative task? It often feels
fuzzy or vague, nameless until it fully forms as a single
puzzling and complex bodily feeling. When you attend to it in an
open, gentle and caring manner, just as it is in your body, it
can change even very slightly. It can feel like a loosening, or
easing of something that felt stuck or blocked inside. This is a
felt shift that can bring healing, creative change and spiritual
growth. When a felt sense of a situation changes you change and
so does your life.
The
felt sense is not easily defined, but it includes all our inner
knowing that is not readily apparent. A knowing that comes from
inside the body rather than just from the mind.
Benefits:
·
It can help you to empower the self and restore
equilibrium.
·
It can reduce the levels of stress and can prevent
burnout.
·
It can enable you to access and expand your own creative
energy and express it.
·
It can help to build healthier and more satisfactory
relationships.
·
It can help you to make decisions that are right for you.
·
It can connect you to the whole spiritual side of your
life. Enabling you to experience yourself within the larger
mystery that holds us all in being.
·
It can help you to clear a space in side to listen to
others.
·
It can help you in your prayer life.
The
Origins of Focusing
Professor
Eugene Gendlin, a former student and colleague of Karl Rogers,
in his research discovered this natural process that we all use
from time to time in a haphazard way perhaps without even being
aware of what we are doing. He described it as something we do
inside and we all have the capacity to do it. He devised a
step-by-step process with six movements as a way of teaching it.
As you continue y to practice it the steps may not need to be
completed or may not follow the exact sequence as he maps them
out.
The
six Focusing steps:
1.
Clearing a space …… getting some distance between you
and your issues.
2.
The felt sense of an issue……getting the body feel of
an issue.
3.
Getting a handle on it………a word or image comes that
sums up exactly how the issue is experienced inside.
4.
Resonating….the word or image is checked to see if it
fits accurately.
5.
Asking the felt sense ….what is the worst of
it?………what does it need?…..and waiting for a response
from inside.
6.
Receiving …….. savouring what has come…….marking
what remains unfinished …….thanking your body for this
process.
To
summarise, Focusing is:
-
A natural process, not a technique.
-
An internal act that we all have the human equipment to
do.
-
A skill that can be learnt by everyone.
-
A bodily process rather than a mind process.
-
A bodily way of being with an issue, problem,
relationship or creative task, that allows it unfold more fully,
tell its story, and move towards the next step of moving forward
in the right direction.
-
Paying attention inside to a bodily sense of something
that is deeper than thoughts, feelings and body sensations.
******************************************
Reference:
Eugene
T. Gendlin:
Focusing
(Rider)
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