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"GUIDING IN" FOCUSING INSTRUCTIONS
A Gift from Suzanne Noel at Creative Edge Practice E-Group
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director Summer |
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PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
For four weeks, we practice an actual exercise in three different categories: An Instant "Ahah!" to integrate into your every day life at work and at home, a Felt Sensing exercise to practice this step of Focusing or an Interpersonal Focusing exercise, and a Complete Focusing Session. Actually doing the exercise which arrives in each e-newsletter insures that you can call upon these new skills when needed!
Choosing Your Own "Complete Focusing Exercise"
The e-newsletters are slowing down for a summer rest period! In the Fall, the entire year of e-newsletters will recycle as an e-course, three practice opportunities per week, a walk through the Instant "Ahah!" Mini-Manual and The Complete Focusing Instruction free downloads, and an interweaving of the Creative Edge Focusing (TM) website materials with the work of others within the Focusing community and also in the larger world.
This summer, especially for those who have been practicing through these e-newsletters for a while, I suggest that you become able to choose whatever kind of Complete Focusing Instruction fits your needs today and throughout the week. This makes you independent of my direction and lets you take charge of your own Focusing experience.
You can do this by going to the e-newsletter archives and browsing until you find the exercise that "fits" for you, be it Focusing on a Situation, Clearing A Space, Focusing on Creativity, "How Am I Today?", etc. Go to www.cefocusing.com , choose Free Resources Category button, and click on E-Newsletter Archive from the submenu. Now you are on your own!
Starting Your Own Listening/Focusing Partnership or Group
In the weekly Felt Sensing newsletters of the last four-week cycle, I gave instruction (including free Chapter downloads from the manual Focusing In Community: Starting A Listening/Focusing Support Group (Focusing en Comunidad) and encouragement for starting your own, local Listening/Focusing Practice Group.
See Week One: Starting A Listening/Focusing Practice Group if you haven't already downloaded the free Introduction to the Self-Help manual, Focusing In Community, which tells you many ways to find a first person for a Listening/Focusing Partnership and to expand into a core self-help practice group. Week Two: Basic Listening/Focusing Partnership Exchange to find links to download Chapter Three, complete instructions for the first ten sessions of your practice groups (English and Spanish versions).
Week Three: The Focuser Is In Charge to learn exactly what the Focuser does while being Listening To
Spend the summer finding a Focusing Partner and building up a Focusing Practice Group!!!!! |
A "GIFT" FROM SUZANNE NOEL AT CREATIVE EDGE PRACTICE E-GROUP
"Guiding In" Focusing Instructions for Help Entering the Bodily "Felt Sense," the "Intuitive Feel" of "It All"
With her permission to share, I have copied some "Guiding In" Focusing Instructions that Suzanne Noel offered to someone in our Creative Edge Practice e-group (join us for actual LIstening/Focusing practice at http://yahoogroups.com/group/creativeedgepractice ).
Suzanne was careful to say that she usually sticks with just giving Reflective Listening Response, but, if the Focuser seems to have a strong "bodily felt sense" or "intuitive feel" of an issue but is having trouble getting out of "story" and "into" the "felt sense," then "Guiding In" can be helpful.
I love the term! Usually, people talk about "guiding" a Focuser, but this term, "guiding in" makes it so clear that the Listener is ONLY trying to guide the Focuser more deeply into their own bodily "intuitive feel" --- is not giving answers or guidance or advise, just "guiding in," so the Focuser can find their own solution as the "intuitive feel" unfolds and carries forward.
As I read Suzanne's instructions, I naturally felt "guided in" to my own issues, leaving head/story and going toward the "whole felt sense of it," waiting, holding, being compassionate, even offering my own physical comfort by touching any painful place ---- Wow!!!! Just powerful instructions for deepening!!!! I'd suggest printing them out and keeping them handing, even carrying them in your wallet/purse!!!! Suzanne said:
" If you want some Focusing "guiding in", I offer it below. If it feels intrusive,
honor your self and disregard my invitation!
If it is OK to do so (Kathy adds: after
1. deciding to pause for Focusing, sitting down, getting comfortable, closing your eyes and traveling "inside" by just noticing and following your breathing--- noticing the breath, going in---and out---in---and out --- in---and out---
2. Spending some time Clearing A Space, making a list of issues you are carrying, and choosing one to spend Focusing time with, or just seeing what arises inside wanting your attention ---
3. Then use Suzanne's "Guiding In" suggestions to proceed :
I invite you to gently hold "all this" about "(Whatever your issue/concern is)". Hold it all as a whole, standing back from it a bit.
If it feels alright to do so, turn your attention inward.
Is ALL THIS present somewhere inside?
From a space of quiet awareness, WAIT.
Notice if anything emerges from this inside space,
a felt sense, a felt experience of All of THAT.
As something begins to come, be with it until it comes into "focus".
(If anxiety is present, this may melt a bit as you enter the felt sense that is emerging.)
See if you can symbolize that Something that is emerging with an image, metaphor, gesture, sound, a certain emotional mood... even a memory may come up.
So,
here, you may just want to be with this, what's here now.
It usually unfolds and offers up meaning just by being with it.
Sometimes, it is helpful to ask it certain questions:
What is the crux (or the worst) of this?
(Wait.)
What does it need?
(Wait.)
Any small shift/insight is welcome. Good enough for now, especially if this is a big or long-term issue/concern. You may even allow yourself to lay your hand where you are holding it all in your body (as suggested in the Bio-Spiritual style of Focusing). Keep it company in this physically felt way.
You may want to see if you can be kind to yourself with this (or to the felt experience of ALL THIS).
If not kind, can you be compassionate?
If not compassionate, Friendly?
If not Friendly, can you be Patient with yourself with all this? Allow yourself or your felt sense to receive some of this Self Empathy.
If none comes to you, ask yourself: Can I appreciate how difficult it is to change this when I can't be kind or friendly or compassionate or patient with myself?
~~~~~*~~~~~
Suzanne L. No�l, CFT
Insight & Recovery Focusing
http://www.innerwisdoms.com
Thanks, Suzanne, for helping us to "keep company with ourselves" this summer! |
HAVE YOU STARTED YOUR LISTENING/FOCUSING PRACTICE PARTNERSHIP OR GROUP YET???????
CLICK HERE FOR A LINK AT CREATIVE EDGE FOCUSING WHERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE "INTRODUCTION," IN ENGLISH OR SPANISH, AS A FREE PDF FILE.
AND/OR CLICK HERE TO VIEW A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION AND TO CONSIDER PURCHASING THE ENTIRE SELF-HELP PACKAGE FOR $39 (OR MANUAL DOWNLOAD ALONE FOR $5), WITH MULTI-MEDIA SUPPORT.
It is my hope that, before the end of this four-week cycle, you will have found at least one other person to practice Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening with as the beginning of your own local practice group. The manual chapter gives many suggestions about how to find your first one or more people, how to present the idea, how to demonstrate the skills.
BUT ONLY YOU CAN TAKE THAT FIRST STEP OF FINDING SOMEONE, JUST THAT ONE, FIRST PERSON. From then on, you and your partner can support each other in enlarging the group, if you want.
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QUICK LINKS TO E-SUPPORT, CLASSES, BLOG, ARTICLES, ETC.
Self-Help Package, CDs, DVD, manual English and espanol
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| About Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Mission: bring Core Skills of Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening, and The Creative Edge Pyramid of applications from individual to interpersonal to organizational, to all audiences throughout the world.
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director
Location: Beaver Lake in Rogers, AR
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These materials are offered purely as self-help skills. In providing them, Dr. McGuire is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought. | |
| Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Dr. Kathy McGuire
Director | |
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