Article:
What Is Focusing? Pat Duffy C.P.
Focusing is about paying attention inside to a bodily felt sense of something as yet unclear until it speaks, opens, unfolds or tells its story in a way that brings fresh insight, physical release, new steps of change and a sense of connectedness to the larger process that is greater than the self.
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 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.
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Reference:
Eugene T. Gendlin: Focusing (Rider)
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 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)