Centering In
Centering In
Using the Focusing Process to Facilitate Change
Using the Focusing Process to Facilitate Change
What Is Focusing?
What Is Focusing?
Focusing is a body-oriented process of self-awareness
and emotional healing. It's as simple as noticing
how you feel - and then having a conversation with
your feelings in which you do most of the listening.
~Ann Weiser Cornell~
The Power of Focusing
Focusing is both a natural process, and one which can be learned and strengthened. Perhaps you've experienced some of those moments when you simply know what's true. You've misplaced something important; searching
your memory, you suddenly see and know the very spot where you'll find it. Your body says, "Aha!" Or, you hang up the phone after talking with a friend; you have a lingering sense of discomfort, although your thinking mind can't understand why or recall her exact words. Your body says, "Angry!" Or, you have a difficult decision to make; you ponder it for days, talk with trusted friends, but still don't know what to do, and then it happens! You now have a sense of everything falling into place and your choice seems clear and certain. Your body says, "Yes!"
These are naturally occurring moments of focusing.
Such moments are whole-body experiences of "knowing" which are more than thoughts, more than emotions, more than physical sensations, more than images or ideas. They are all of these, and something more. When we bring awareness to such moments we find a process which can be clearly described. This process, once identified, can also be followed, taught and refined. Using this more formalized Focusing process can help us deepen and support those natural abilities, so that we gain mastery over our inner dialogue and can begin to use
and trust our innate body-wisdom.
When you learn Focusing, you learn to be with your own sensations
and feelings, and you discover that they have communications
for you. You learn to turn toward what you are feeling with
interested curiosity, rather than being caught up in feelings and
acting out of them. You find out how to include and accept
all sorts of inner experiences, with no need to take sides
in an inner war that labels some parts of you as "bad".
~Ann Weiser Cornell~
The Radical Acceptance of Everything
Focusing is a simple, gentle process which promotes a dynamic, interactive relationship with your own inner experience. Focusing teaches you how to sit and keep company with your emotions, rather than getting caught up in them. In this way, Focusing can help you become a better listener to yourself. When you learn to listen, compassionately and respectfully, to your own emotions, you naturally become a more aware and compassionate friend, partner, parent, co-worker and steward of the earth.
What causes lasting change? People don't usually change
their lives, or begin to feel permanently better about
themselves, by adopting self-improvement regimens or
telling themselves to change their thoughts and beliefs.
Real change occurs when a person has a different experience
of herself. You don't have to change or fix or improve yourself
in order to be happy. Living a fulfilled life comes from learning
how to listen to your inner voice, to the truth of your inner being
and all the ways that it speaks to you, and to live from it.
~Helene G. Brenner~
I Know I'm In There Somewhere
