Creative Edge Focusing E-Newsletter

Instant "Ahah!" # 1: FOCUSING 

FOCUSING AS A "RECIPE" OF INNER ACTIONS

  Week Four      
Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director 
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: A "Recipe" of Inner Actions 
 
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.
 
It may help to view the Six Steps of Focusing just like any "recipe" that you try to follow --- in baking a cake, learning to hit a tennis ball, turning on a complicated piece of machinery. Each Step is a specific activity that you do, like "break open the eggs, then separate the whites from the yolks" or "First, pump up the oil, then set the choke, then turn on the ignition."   
 
You have to know how to do each action before you can carry out the recipe and get to the goal. After you have done the recipe a lot of times, you can go very smoothly and even make your own intuitive adjustments.
 
But we are not used to "inner actions," knowing lots of different activities we can carry on inside. So, in learning Focusing, you are learning a set of actions to take inside of yourself:
 
(1) Clearing A Space: Using a relaxation technique, a guided fantasy, or a formal Taking an Inventory exercise to go from the intellectualization and tension of the day into a more peaceful contact with your body and its wisdom
 
(2) Getting A Felt Sense: Now, having set aside everything you already know, you ask an Open-Ended Question, like "How am I today?" or "What am I carrying?" , or, if you have chosen a specific issue to work on, "What is this all about?", AND THEN YOU PAUSE AND WAIT, FOR AS LONG AS A MINUTE, FOR THE VAGUE, PREVERBAL, SUBTLE "BODILY FELT SENSE" OR "INTUITIVE FEEL" OF AN ISSUE OR IDEA TO ARISE.
 
This "pausing" and paying attention for the preverbal "feel" is a totally new Inner Activity, one that anyone hardly ever does until they learn Intuitive Focusing, and the actual way to access The Creative Edge, the "bodily feel" that is the wellspring of the "new."
 
(3) Finding A Handle: In this Inner Activity, you look for words or an image or a gesture that begins to capture the "quality" ("jumpy," "black," "a concrete block," "sad," "all knotted up," "joyful,") of the"felt sense."
 
(4) Resonating And Checking: And, in order to find the exactly right symbolizations to capture this new Creative Edge, you have to GO BACK-AND-FORTH BETWEEN ANY SYMBOLS AND THE "INTUITIVE FEEL" UNTIL YOU FIND THE SYMBOLS THAT ARE "EXACTLY RIGHT," EXPERIENCED AS A PHYSICAL RELEASE OF TENSION, A LARGE OR SMALL "AHAH! THAT IS IT EXACTLY, FROM YOUR BODY.
 
(4) Asking: Asking open-ended questions of the "intuitive feel" ("And what is so hard about that?" or "And why is this so important to me?" or "And what is the crux of that anger?"  and, again, doing the Inner Actions of Steps 2, 3, and 4 :Pausing to get a Felt Sense, looking for Handle words or images, and Resonating and Checking until the body says, through tension release, "Yes, that is exactly it."  The open-ended question allows a new "felt sense" to form in response, during the pause, and further unfolding happens through resonating and checking.
 
Inner Actions repeated over and over: Asking, PAUSING, looking for Symbolizations, Checking and Resonating whatever comes until the body says "Yes! That is it." 
 
(5) Receiving: after a "felt shift," a step of unfolding or "Ahah!," stopping just for a moment and letting the new realization "sink in." Pausing to let the new information get "lived into" by your body, taking it in at a cellular level. And appreciating your body, so often ignored and turned away from during the usual day, for sharing its wisdom with you.
 
And, then, if you like, you can start another cycle of the Inner Actions of Focusing, looking for further unfolding on the issue or idea: Asking, Pausing for Felt Sense, Looking for Handle symbols, Resonating and Checking until the body-sense says, "Yes, that is exactly right."
 
You can try out Intuitive Focusing and receive a Listening Response by 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
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