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.

I first found ‘parts’ of me, that wanted attention. There was a ‘pushy part’, and a part that didn’t want to be pushed. One of the key things about felt senses is that they arise freshly, in present moment experiencing. I felt a heaviness in my stomach. It came in response to a situation in my life. It was a part of me that didn’t want to have to do something, and it felt pushed into doing it. I was aware of the life story that it related to, and it was a version of a parts dynamic that is familiar to me. My body was responding to that dynamic in this particular way, with a heavy feeling in my stomach. 

I stayed with it, not thinking about anything in particular, but keeping my attention there with the heaviness in my stomach. Gradually it felt like there was a whole bundle of stuff there; past experiences that were connected to it, current things that the parts of me that were active wanted and did not want; and current decisions that I needed to make. I didn’t go into all of that. There was a lot there, and it would have taken more time than I had in the session to unravel it all. I stayed with the felt sense of the ‘whole thing’, as it was was bundled in my stomach.

As I stayed with it, I gradually realized that for some time it had seemed to have a light blue cloth around it. The awareness came slowly. It gradually dawned on me. I acknowledged the light blue cloth and continued to stay with it. I did not understand it at first. Then I became aware that it had a wooden stick, like one might carry a bundle on a stick over one’s shoulder in fairy tales. The heaviness left my stomach, and I felt as if I could pick up the stick and carry the bundle over my shoulder. It felt much lighter there, and I could easily carry it.

The Focusing session related directly to a current life issue and the parts that were activated in response to the issue. What was at first unclear and undefined; just a general feeling of heaviness, became very clear and specific, which resolved itself, when given the opportunity to do so, simply by me giving it attention and staying with it. This is how I got in touch with a felt sense of a part, and it released as I stayed with it.