‘Should I have my eyes open or closed while doing Whole Body Focusing?’

A. asks ‘In your experience do most people doing Whole Body Focusing, focus with their eyes closed or open? I was just curious as there is the invitation to sense in to the environment around at the beginning and I imagine that can be done more easily with eyes open. Then maybe people close their eyes. And also people may move around a bit more, and eyes open would probably help with this. Maybe in whole body people move more between open and closed. Just wondered what was your experience.’

A. The first thing I would say is do what feels right for you, just as in any Focusing experience. You are in charge of your session, and you might want to notice the environment visually, especially at first; and if you start moving around, you might want to have your eyes open. You might want to go between eyes open or closed. Just as in seated Focusing, some people like to have a soft gaze, rather than closing their eyes.

My experience is that most people do actually close their eyes, even in a Wholebody Focusing session. I prefer to have my eyes closed. This keeps my attention inside. For me, there is a very different quality of attention when I am wholly focused inside. It is not like I am shutting out the environment, but rather, I am noticing my body’s response to the environment. That needs me to pay close attention, and for that I find it easier with my eyes closed.

At the start of a Wholebody exercise in the class, I invite people to look around them before closing their eyes, to make sure they know how much space there is around them; how close other people, or other objects are to them. If they are in a small space, it might feel right to open their eyes from time to time; to ‘peak’, and make sure they still have space in which to move.

In a partnered session, the Focusing Companion can help the Wholebody Focuser to stay safe, by guiding them gently and protecting them if they get too close to a wall.

Gene Gendlin’s philosophy states that we are not separate from our environment. The body and the environment are a single event, each inter-affecting the other. It can take some time to sense into your body’s response to this environment, now, today; different from other days, or how you are feeling today. At first, when you start a Wholebody Focusing session, try taking your attention inside with eyes closed, and see if you can notice your body’s response to the environment. There is no need to move just yet. Just try it out, as an experiment, and see what happens.

Kevin McEvenue, who developed Wholebody Focusing, says the key to Wholebody Focusing is finding your grounded sense of your Self in Presence in a very natural and physical way. This provides the context and the container for profound healing possibilities. This grounded sense of your physical self is what you can trust. It may take lots of sessions and practice, or you may be there already, and you find that it is easy. Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, it is really worthwhile.

The natural environment is bigger than us. It contains us all, and it contains each part of us. See if you can get a sense of ‘me here’, and ‘more than me’. This provided the ground and basis for further exploration of Wholebody Focusing.