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Instant "Ahah!" # 1: FOCUSING
Find Out What Is Bothering You Week Two
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director |
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| Creative Edge Focusing E-Course --- Weekly Support
The Creative Edge Focusing E-Course walks you through small steps in learning the Core Skills of Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening. Each week you will receive three e-newsletters:
(1) an "Instant Ahah!" for immediate integration into work and home life
(2) a Pre-Focusing Relaxation or Getting A Felt Sense" exercise (including "Interpersonal Felt Sensing for conflict resolution)
(3) a Complete Focusing Exercise you can practice.
We stay with a set of exercises for four weeks, giving ample opportunity for further explanation and practice, so that the exercises become a natural part of your daily living, at home and at work.
No matter when you join this e-course, if you stay with us for a year, you will have a chance to practice all the exercises. |
EXAMPLE OF A COMPLETE FOCUSING TURN
In the First Week of this four weeks practice of Instant "Ahah!" #1: FOCUSING --- Find Out What Is Bothering You, I introduced Gendlin's Six Step Focusing Process and gave the Complete Focusing Exercise. If you are just joining us, go to e-newsletter archive to read this e-newsletter before proceeding to read the example of a Focusing Turn below:
I did a Focusing Turn in The Creative Edge Practice E-Group (join here) on a felt experience which I call "Experiencing The Sacred":
// Note: Listening/Focusing does not have to be used in relation to spiritual experience -- this is just a special interest of mine, and not central to Gendlin's Focusing process and the use of The Creative Edge Pyramid of skills and applications at home and at work---//
Step One: Clearing A Space (closing my eyes, turning inward---slowing down, paying attention to my breathing) --- Breathing in --- and out---- in---and out--- Massaging my face, neck shoulders. Taking a minute or two to come in touch with my body.
Step Two: Getting A Felt Sense
Now I start looking for the "intuitive feel" to form for the Focusing question: "What is this 'whole thing' about Experiencing The Sacred)------
------(Focusing inward at least a minute, waiting for the "felt sense," the "intuitive feel" of "this whole thing" to form, as a vague, preverbal sensing inside my chest area---)
Step Three: Finding A Handle
Initial words come: "Someone asked me why I have used religious or spiritual terms, like Agape, the Christ-within-the-Other, the Universal Oneness, in pointing to the Sacred experience that I often have during Listening/Focusing turns, especially when the Focuser touches upon a "sheen of tears," a place of profound meaning (see my article "Being Touched and Being Moved"), and I am the Listener, and, suddenly, the boundary between us dissolves and I feel that "our souls are touching" or some such thing---hard to find words to describe it---I am pointing
Step Four: Checking and Resonating
(quiet to check with the "felt sense," the "intuitive feel" of this "whole thing"--- "Do those words fit? 'Our souls are touching, boundary dissolves'?" (sitting quietly with "the feel of it all," going back-and-forth between words and images or gestures which arise, checking and resonating, trying to find the symbolizations that are "just right" in capturing "the feel of it all")---
---The person and I spoke of Martin Buber's "I -Thou" vs. "I-It" distinction as another way of pointing to this experience---(pause to look for words--- new words) this experience of merging-without-joining, union-with-separation, and, not just the two people, but the sense of "something more" in that moment of "soul-touching (soul is not the right word, just a pointing word)"---the sense that The Sacred (again, pointing words---) enters in---the two people hanging together in this larger---(I'm getting a thrill here, a little teary---almost goose bumps)------(big breath---ahhhhhh!)
( new steps forward, "felt shifts" coming as I find words that are closer in grasping and articulating the "felt meaning" -- the Ahhh!, sighs, deep breaths that indicate the tension release and "Ahah!" experience of the "felt shift," the Paradigm Shift)
Step Five: Asking An Open-Ended Question
(and I ask myself, "What is so important about this 'two people hanging together in this larger Something'?" and wait quietly for the "feel of it all" to emerge, preverbally in my body, Getting The Felt Sense, before I again begin looking for Handle Words and Resonating and Checking---pause for "felt sensing", as much as a minute, followed by more symbolizations, more resonating and checking between the symbols and the "feel of it all")
Step Six: Receiving
(and I sit with and savor this new insight, that it is exactly the two people and Something More in the space between that feels Sacred, touches me so deeply, and some Global Application comes after the Felt Shift --- seeing new connections)
--- And it can happen in nature, with a sunset, with music, in churches or other sacred spaces, many different roads, not just between people--- (and I spend some time just letting the richness of the felt shift, the new information, register throughout my body/mind, and thanking my body-sense for this new information). End of Focusing Turn
FELT SHIFTING, GIVING BIRTH TO THE NEW
You can see how, instead of answering immediately from my head, what I already know about "experiencing the Sacred" ("Well, of course, it's related to Martin Buber and it's about Something Greater Than Yourself," etc.), Focusing allows me to stop and "sit with" my larger "whole-body-wisdom" that includes everything I have read and everything I have experienced and am experiencing. From this "felt sense" I can articulate new facets of the experience. And I also experience the sense of "sureness," of experiential rather than merely intellectual insight, that lets me know I am on the right track.
Of course, Focusing can be used for all kinds of problem solving without entry into the spiritual realm, without touching on tears and feeling connection with the Other---this Experiencing the Sacred is just a special Interest Area of mine--- |
INSTANT "AHAH!" # 1 Focusing: Find Out What Is Bothering You
Focusing On the Creative Edge
And here, again, is your practice exercise. Please take time to walk through the Complete Focusing Session below as I did in the example above.
Set aside at least 20-30 minutes. Remember, Focusing is a skill usually taught in 10 two-hour classes or two weekend workshops ---so, if it doesn't work for you immediately, don't give up! Find a nearby teacher from the Focusing Institute Listings (www.focusing.org ) or arrange for phone sessions with Dr. McGuire or another Creative Edge Consultant .
But, some people are natural Focusers and just say, "Oh, yes. I've been doing this all my life. Now, I can just do it better, more predictably, whenever I want. Give it a try:
(for audio company, purchase Intuitive Focusing Instructions CD as part of our Self-Help Package at www.cefocusing.com -- leave at least one minute of silence between each instruction) Step One: Clearing A Space (Relaxation exercise in this case)
---Okay --- first, just get yourself comfortable --- feel the weight of your body on the chair --- loosen any clothing that is too tight --- (one minute) ---Spend a moment just noticing your breathing --- don't try to change it --- just notice the breath going in --- and out --- (one minute) ---Now, notice where you have tension in your body (pause) --- (one minute) ---Now, imagine the tension as a stream of water, draining out of your body through your fingertips and feet (Pause) --- (one minute) ---Let yourself travel inside of your body to a place of peace --- (one minute) Step Two: Getting A Felt Sense ---Now, bring to mind an incident or a situation that was troublesome for you this week (pause as long as necessary) --- Think about it or get a mental image of it --- (one minute) ---Now, try to set aside all of your thoughts about the situation, and just try to bring back the feeling you had in that situation (pause) --- not words, but the "intuitive feel" of yourself in that situation --- (one minute) Step Three: Finding A Handle
---Now, carefully try to find words or an image for that feeling --- (one minute) Step Four: Resonating and Checking ---Go carefully back and forth between any words and the "intuitive feel of the whole thing" until you find words or an image that are just right for it --- (one minute) Step Five: Asking
---Now, gently ask yourself, "What is so hard about this situation for me?", and wait, at least a minute, to see what comes in your wordless intuition, your whole-body sense --- (one minute) ---Again, carefully find words or an image that exactly fit that whole feeling --- going back and forth until the symbols are "just right." (one minute) ---Now, imagine what the situation would be like if it were perfectly all right (one minute) ---Now, ask yourself, "What's in the way of that?" and, again, don't answer from your head, what you already know, but wait, as long as a minute, for something new to come in the center of your body, more like a wordless intuition or whole-body sense --- (one minute) ---Again, carefully find words or an image for that, "whatever is in the way" ---go back and forth until the symbols are "just right." (one minute) ---Now, see if you can find some small step you might be able to take to move yourself in a positive direction --- again, don't answer from your head, the already known, but wait as much as a minute for the wordless, intuitive "feel," the bodily felt sense of an answer to arise --- (one minute) ---Take a moment, again, to carefully find words or an image for this possible next step --- go back and forth until the symbols are "just right." (one minute) ---Check with your "intuitive feel," "Is this right? Is this really something I could try doing?" --- If your "intuitive feel" says, "Yes (some sense of release, relaxation), I could try that," then you can stop here. ---If your "felt sense" says "No, I can't do that" or "That won't work," then ask yourself again, "What small step in the positive direction would work?", again, waiting quietly, as much as a minute for an intuitive answer to arise, then making words or an image for it --- going back and forth until the symbols are "just right." (one minute) ---Keep going back and forth between the "intuitive feel" and possible words and images as long as you are comfortable, or until you experience "Ahah! That's it!". (one minute or more) Step Six: Receiving ---Whether a "solution" has arisen or not, appreciate yourself and your body for taking time with this, trusting that pausing to take time is the important thing -- solutions can then arise later. (one minute) The crux of change is just spending quiet time paying attention to the "intuitive feel." If no clear next step arises, just remind yourself that at least you have gotten a clearer sense of the problem. Because you have spent quiet, Intuitive Focusing time with the "feel" of "the whole thing," you have started a process of change. Something new may "pop up" later, as you go about your day.
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| PRACTICE: Pause, and Ponder
 When each e-newsletter arrives, PAUSE to take 10-20 minutes to practice the exercise, taking time to PONDER at the Creative Edge, the source of change.
If you didn't get the free Instant "Ahah!"s Mini-Manual download when you subscribed to this e-newsletter, you can find it in PDF file here or, in Spanish --- all ten easy immediate applications for home and work.Keep it handy for weekly practice of one of the ten applications.
You can also immediately download the Complete Focusing Instructions (Pre-Focusing and Focusing Practice), which we will also use each week, while signing up for our Creative Edge Focusing e-support list. Of course, you can immediately unsubscribe if you want.
On this e-support list, you can ask your questions, see demonstrations of Intuitive Focusing, Focused Listening, Interpersonal Focusing, and Collaborative Edge Decision Making (CEDM)and actually try these skills out yourself with Dr. McGuire's guidance. You can network with others trying to spread Listening and Focusing to other audiences and explore our Certification Programs.
If you purchase The Self-Help Package multi-media package, instead of just reading, you can listen to the Pre-Focusing and Focusing Instructions directly with Dr. McGuire on audio CD and watch Listening/Focusing demonstrations on the DVD-R. In the Spanish version of the manual, Focusing En Comunidad, you will find many of the Relaxation and Focusing Exercises in Spanish. You will also receive instructions on setting up a Focusing Partnership or Focusing Group to practice the equal exchange of Listening/Focusing turns. | |
| 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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| Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Dr. Kathy McGuire
Director | |
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