The Practice of "Focusing"
The practice of Focusing involves noticing and welcoming felt senses. Felt senses are indistinct sensations that ordinarily lie below the radar of attention, but which can be noticed and felt if we are receptive to them. Felt senses don't have the clearly defined quality of purely physical sensations like touching a hot stove or stubbing your toe. They are initially quite vague or fuzzy. They are non-conceptual, yet they relate to parts of our livesāwork, relationships, fears, creative challenges. They have a quality of āaboutness,ā even when we canāt tell specifically what they are about.
Occasionally a felt sense shows up that canāt be missedālike having a āknotā in your stomach, a ālumpā in your throat, or a ābrokenā heart. All of these are distinctly felt in the body, and yet are clearly āaboutā events and situations in our lives. But most felt senses are so subtle that we donāt notice them. They lie below the level of ordinary feelings, but they can be triggers of strong emotion. An episode of anger may be preceded by an inner tightening, a jittery sensation, a sinking feeling. If we can notice these slight inner sensations before we erupt in anger, we gain psychological space in which to choose our words and actions rather than being overtaken by them. It is the difference between reacting and responding.
Felt senses function as a kind of borderland between the unconscious and the conscious. Being with felt senses in a patient, friendly way primes the pump of intuition. Although intuition by its nature is spontaneous and canāt be forced, if we know how to enter the borderlands of the felt sense, we prepare the ground for intuition to strike. When it does, we gain unexpected insights that can manifest as fresh articulation and action.
From David Rome & Hope Martin, "Are You Listening", Shambhala Sun, July 2010.Ā For more information, check the Focusing Institute website.