What is ‘carrying forward’, and what you can do to support this important Focusing step of change.
J says, ‘I wanted to say how much I enjoyed your last ‘tip.’ It would be great if you could sometime enlarge on how to make best use of focusing sessions by ending them in the way you describe…’
A Focuser asks ‘how can I go back to places in me that I have been with during a Focusing session?’
‘The system won’t do what I tell it to, and I have to start afresh. Although I notice a progressive picture building up, it takes some time for me to make my way back to the ‘coal face’ each time, like a miner. How can I pick up where I left off?’
How does the felt sense relate to parts?
In a recent article I was talking about how you can tell the difference between a part of you, and the felt sense, which is Dr. Eugene Gendlin’s term for something that can be felt in the body and is at first unclear. In this month’s tips I am going to give you an example from a recent Focusing session.
Helen asks about the felt sense. Dr. Eugene Gendlin says that the Parts we find are not the felt-sense…
A part is usually taken to be a shorthand way of describing a pattern of thought, behaviour, belief or feelings that generate a recognisable response within the personality. A felt sense is the body’s response to something, so you can have a felt sense of a part.
What advice can you offer for Focusing in times of strong emotions such as grief and heartbreak?
B. writes, I want help supporting the grieving process. I had a regular Focusing call with a companion a few days after a dear friend had died. Shortly before the call, I realised a range of emotions had been flowing easily and I had, without asking or intending, experienced felt senses that had guided me in the grief process.’
Dr. Eugene Gendlin shows how Focusing is helpful.
J. asks ‘When I do meditation I feel it achieves the same as that of Focusing, in that it’s a way of getting into Presence. What are the differences with Focusing?’
Someone says, ‘I want to be creative but I don’t know how. I don’t seem to be able to get my project off the ground.’
Why is it that this is so true for many of us? You have ideas of some project or creative venture that you would love to do, and yet it never seems to happen. Daily life takes over and the project gets squeezed out. Or you have managed to create a space for it, but when you are there, faced with the blank canvass or whatever, you no longer have the inspiration or motivation.
When does Focusing help?
Both meditation and Focusing enable you to get into Presence. Whereas the goal of meditation is for you to become established in a state of being in Presence, Focusing is more often a vehicle for enabling felt shifts and inner changes to occur. So what life situations might call for inner change?
How Focusing helps you with overcoming self doubt.
A reader asks, How can I best use Focusing to deal with the problem of overcoming self doubt, that often appears relentlessly during Focusing, meditation or when just trying to relax; and it prevents me ever being able to be fully at ease with myself, let alone others?
What’s stopping you?
New Year resolution ideas; what are yours? Many of us take the opportunity at this time of year to make lifestyle changes, perhaps through New Year resolution ideas. I know that I do it every year, and some years are more successful than others, in following though on my commitments and good intentions.
Contact Fiona
T: 01626 821110
M: 07799 027332
E: fiona@fionaparr-focusing.co.uk
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