Creative Edge Focusing E-Newsletter

Instant "Ahah!" # 1: FOCUSING 

FOCUSING AND ANXIETY   Week Three      

Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director 
SORRY! TROPICAL STORM IKE BLEW THROUGH ARKANSAS AND TOOK AWAY MY COMPUTER ACCESS, SO E-COURSE EMAILS LATE THIS WEEK!
 
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.
FOCUSING AND ANXIETY 
 
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 so you will understand the basic steps of Focusing and prepared to do the practice exercise below.
 
In my personal/work life, I am caught up in a situation generating a lot of anxiety. I often use the Relaxation: Noticing Your Breathing exercise you will also receive this week to help break through the wall of anxiety so that I can fall asleep or, at other times, to "Clear A Space" for a deeper Focusing Turn.
 
I also sometimes add the basic energy meridian tapping sequence from Emotional Freedom Techniques (www.emofree.com ), another free self-help method which often allows the deep sighs and tension release of the relaxation response.
 
And, really most successfully, I turn to The Creative Edge Practice E-Group --- just knowing there are Listeners out there in cyberspace usually allows me to shift immediately from overwhelming anxiety to relieving tears, even sobbing, about the deeper fears and issues underlying the anxiety. As actual research with brain waves and galvanic skin response (GSR) has shown, simply using Focusing to find a "name," to find words and images for what the body is carrying subconsciously, actually brings about relaxation. It is better to know what you are facing, even if the words seem bad to others!
 
Here is a recent example of a Focusing Turn on "Debilitating Anxiety" which I did on The Creative Edge Practice E-Group, getting a lot of "felt shifting" and release of my anxiety (and the ability to sleep for two nights after the Turn) as well as, in a few hours, several comforting, empathic Listening Responses from group members throughout the world. I include only a small part of the Turn, demonstrating the initial shift from "free-floating anxiety" to relieving tears and sobbing as words come as a "Handle" on the felt sense:
 
Hello, Group,
 
   I am suffering from "debilitating anxiety," frozen neck and shoulders and jaw, sleeplessness or restless sleeping. I am reaching out to your friendly comfort in hopes of "touching" the edge of this anxiety, and allowing it to unfold its message. I find anxiety especially difficult to "disidentify from", when trying to do Focusing alone, so I reach for your compassion --- just knowing you are out there usually helps!
 
Sp. I am stopping to "sense in," to try to stand at the edge of this anxiety, instead of being paralyzed inside of it --- I imagine I will do some Clearing A Space, naming the various issues I am carrying, seeing which wants attention --- or perhaps not! We'll see what happens in this non-linear Focusing process! But, first, just turning toward my body with some noticing of my breathing as a way to come into my body, and with the general Focusing question, "What is this 'anxiety' all about?" ---
 
(eyes closed, sigh, breathing---) Words come up almost immediately, with tears (and the words completely surprise me!): "I feel so alone. I am so lonely." (sobbing comes, as I ask myself, "What is this lonely?" and wait for the fuller "felt sense" of "it all" to come ---so I am asking, "What is this sobbing about lonely, and related somehow to anxiety? (still surprised at the words) (more sobbing, don't know "why") ---anxiety is somehow related to "feeling so lonely" --- "What is 'all of this'?" and Focusing on the "feel of it all" ---
 
Some thinking comes: "Perhaps it is the sense of 'battle' involved in a lot of work and family things on my plate --- the "uphill struggle" so commonly created around herself by an 8 on the Enneagram: The Challenger --- hostility all around --- so, I will stop and do Focusing, sensing into what comes in the 'center of my body' in response to this 'guess' ---
 
(deep breath, quiet pause for inner 'reflection') ---(shoulders go up and down in spasm of "fear" --- so I decided to "accentuate," to repeat this body motion, see if something comes as a "felt sense," larger "feel" of "all of that fear in my shoulders) --- (lots of sobbing comes as I repeat this "spasm of fear" and the words, again, "I feel so alone; I am so alone" ("What is this 'alone'?, I ask myself. These words still surprise me) ---
 
(long pause for Focusing on the "feel of it all")--- Words: "It seems, or perhaps, it is that I am seeing negative possibilities in areas where other people don't want to think about them or hear about them, and this leaves me alone with my fears, perhaps" --- knowing this is just a "guess," again, I will stop and "resonate" these words against the "bodily felt sense" that is MORE than any of these words --- "Is it that?", I ask, and wait quietly, reflecting inward, and see what comes -----
 
(big sigh, breath, and another) --- (moving my head back and forth on my neck rapidly, trying to break through this tension) ---(big breath) --- (shoulders spasming again) ---
 
"And isn't this what I always do, catastrophize, intuit the worst that can happen --- and sometimes I am right, sometimes wrong (and these new words come) --- but always I am prepared! I am prepared for the worst!  Prepared for the battle, the disillusionment, the failure ---- (big sigh)
 
This is just the beginning, but you can see how quickly the even distant presence of Listening Others helped me to "relate to" the anxiety, instead of being frozen inside it, and allowed new steps of forward motion, of intuitive problem solving to arise.You can explore joining The Creative Edge Practice e-group here.
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.
 
Want to share your experience, do Focusing online and get an actual Listening Response, ask questions? Join The Creative Edge Practive yahoo e-support group.
PRACTICE: Pause, and Ponder
 
Self-HelpWhen 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
 
 
 
Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Dr. Kathy McGuire
Director
 �