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? There are two main entry points for Focusing. The first is when you have a problem or something is feeling stuck in your life. The second is when you are working on a creative endeavour, and you need to sense inside for the right next step.

When you have a problem and something is feeling stuck in your life, and you decide to use Focusing to help you, you do not move away from the problem into a state of being in Presence, thereby sidestepping the issue and going towards a good feeling. No. What you do is turn towards the bad feeling with compassion and curiosity and find out more about it. You can enquire into it, when something is feeling stuck in your life, and ask it what gets it feeling so bad; sad, angry or fearful, or whatever you are feeling. You do not move away from it. You move towards it, without being merged with it.

The Focusing way of being with something in you that feels angry, sad, upset or painful is to find out how that feeling is living in your body. How do you actually experience the painful feeling and what does it actually feel like? You might start with an overall or general feeling of discomfort. As you stay with it, it gradually reveals more information to you. You will need to be patient and willing to take some time.

After a while, what was a general feeling becomes more specific. You will be able to identify exactly where in your body you feel it; your chest or your stomach, for instance. And you will be able to describe exactly how it feels there. What words, phrases or images come that would help you to describe it? What was a general feeling of unease becomes very specific. What comes is often surprising. You couldn’t make it up. A Focuser I know describes this process as bringing fresh metaphors every day.

The words or image has come from somewhere, and your body confirms it, by being able to breathe more easily, and by releasing tensions that have been held there. You feel more relaxed and easier in yourself. You are no longer feeling stuck in your life. You have moved more towards a state of being in Presence. And you have also addressed and taken steps towards resolving whatever was painful in your life