Creative Edge Focusing E-Newsletter

PRE-FOCUSING PRACTICE :Getting A Felt Sense #1 
 
The Body Responds To Everything!                    

                     Week Four                                    Dr. Kathy McGuire, Director
From Creative Edge Focusing: This month's Getting A Felt Sense Exercise : 
 
The "Intuitive Feel" of Two Different People
 : "Good" vs. "Uncomfortable" Feeling
 
DO THIS EXERCISE OVER AND OVER --- THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW THAT ARISES, SOMETIMES A MIRACULOUS CHANGE IN PERCEPTION. You'll find it at the bottom of this e-newsletter.
 
 In this exercise, you are learning to recognize an "intuitive feel" or "bodily felt sense" by having strong bodily responses brought up by different imagery. When you repeat the exercise, with different people behind each door, different "bodily felt senses" or "intuitive feels" arising in response to each person, you will gain more and more experience with, and confidence in, the body's response as a source of information (and Intuitive Focusing as the method for symbolizing all this preverbal information into useable knowledge!)
 
You can also have a similar experience of recognizing your body's response to various events, and the endless information held "preverbally" in this "intuitive feel," by, for instance:
 
(1)   playing an up-beat and then a slow piece of music, and noticing the difference in the "bodily-feel" of each. This is, of course, the basis of the success of the symphonic form in music, each section calling up a different "mood" or bodily-response. You can practice using Focusing to look for words and images to describe the "intuitive feel" of the two different pieces of music. You will begin to see that the "felt sense" can be an endless source of new verbalizations, new symbolizations about anything that comes to the body's attention. You could write a poem, create a dance, describe the music to a friend, write your own piece of music, and create many more symbolizations to describe the effect on your body of the two different pieces of music, all from the one "bodily felt-sense."
 
(2)   Putting your body into a posture or gesture that seems to capture how you feel right now. Then, putting your body into a posture or gesture that captures "How I would like to be feeling." Pay attention to the "intuitive feel" of each posture, using Focusing to make words or images for the bodily-feel of each posture, with Checking and Resonating until the symbols feel "just right" in capturing the bodily-feel. Now, go back and forth between the two body postures, paying attention to the bodily-feel of each, and see what happens. New words or images, or a new posture, may emerge!

(3)   Reading different pieces of poetry, and noticing the "intuitive feel" that arises in your body to each different poem. Use Focusing, with Checking and Resonating, to find some words or an image for the "intuive feel" that comes in response to each different poem.

(4)   Looking at pieces of art and, again, noticing the "intuitive feel" of each which arises in the center of your body, and using Intuitive Focusing, with Checking and Resonating, to create words or images to describe your "body's response" to each different piece of art.
 
You see that, whenever we create meaning, or articulate the meaning of something to us, we begin by referring to our "bodily felt sense," our "intuitive feel," and creating descriptive words or images to capture that "bodily feel." Meaning is created from The Creative Edge, the non-linear, right-brain, "intuitive feel" that comes in our body when we turn our attention to "pondering" on something.
 
I am a very kinesthetic person and an NF (iNtuitive Feeler) on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (you'll find free versions on this test at the link. Please also see my paper,"The Body As A Source Of Knowledge" for an introduction between Thinking and Feeling as ways-of-being in the world) Getting a "bodily felt sense" comes easily to me. I learned Focusing naturally and easily, simply saying, "Thank goodness Eugene Gendlin (Focusing, Bantam, 1981) finally put into words the way I have been living all along." But others, perhaps less kinesthetic, perhaps Thinkers rather than Feelers on the MBTI, have great difficulty in knowing what it means to "check with your body and see what comes."
 
If none of these Getting A Felt Sense exercises are working for you, if you find yourself saying, "I have no idea what she is talking about! I don't get a 'bodily feel' when I listen to music, read poetry, look at art", then you might want to check into the writings and books about Focusing by Ann Weiser Cornell at www.focusingresources.com  . Ann describes herself as someone who had no idea what a "bodily felt sense" was, and she developed her methods of teaching Focusing with a lot of awareness of people with a similar problem. 
Pre-Focusing Practice

B. Getting A Felt Sense #1: The "Intuitive Feel" of Each Person 

 (from Complete Focusing Instructions)

 
Here you are learning the difference between thinking up an answer in your head and the second Step of Intuitive Focusing: Getting A Felt Sense. 

In the first Step, you "Clear A Space" with relaxation or other exercises, setting aside already-known intellectualizations.

 

In the second Step, Getting A Felt Sense, you wait quietly, for as much as a minute, for a subtle "feel" of the whole thing, an "intuition,"  to form in the center of your body, and then create words or images that are just right to capture it. You are looking for the "intuitive feel," the Creative Edge, the right-brain information that is more than you can put into words. Gendlin (Focusing, Bantam, 1981, 1984) calls it "the felt sense" of the whole thing.

 
In this Pre-Focusing Practice exercise, I try to give you guided imagery that will evoke some strong, hard-to-miss bodily "felt senses."
 

Especially at the beginning, time those "1 minute" pauses for breathing in---and out--- You will be amazed at how long a minute is, how seldom we ever pause for a whole minute!!!

You can lie on the floor or, for most exercises, sit in a chair. If you fall asleep, it's okay! Means you need more rest! But you may also want to practice sitting up to avoid sleeping.

 

     1. The "Intuitive Feel" of Each Person-Allow 10 minutes

(Joan Klagsbrun invented this exercise)

 

     I'm going to invite you to imagine two doors. Behind the first will be someone that you feel good about. Behind the second will be someone who upsets you.

 

    You will notice that you have a different experience of each person in the center of your body, around the chest and heart area. This experience, this "intuitive feel" without words, is the Creative Edge.

 

    Although initially this experience comes as an "intuition," or a "feeling," without words, by paying attention to this "intuitive feel," you can create many new words and images, truly innovative ideas.

 

---Close your eyes and get comfortable---loosen any clothing that is too tight---

1 minute

---Just follow your breathing for a little while, noticing the breath going in---and out---

1 minute

---Now take a few moments to think about who the two people will be, one that you feel good about, one who upsets you.

1 minute

---And think about the kind of door you'll put each behind, the decorations, color---30 seconds

 

---Now, imagine yourself walking up to the first door and opening it---Here is the person that you feel good about---10 seconds

 

---Let yourself notice the "feel" of that person in your body---10 seconds

 

---Find some words or an image to describe it---30 seconds

 

---Next, bid that person "Goodbye," close the door, and walk away---10 seconds

 

---Now, imagine yourself walking up to the other door and opening it---Here is the person who upsets you---10 seconds

 

---Again, notice the "experience" of that person in the center of your body, the "intuitive feel---10 seconds

 

---Find some words or an image to describe it---30 seconds

 

---Next, bid that person "Goodbye," close the door, and walk away---10 seconds

 

---Now, spend a few moments comparing the two "felt senses," the good feelings and the uncomfortable feelings30 seconds

 

---These are the "bodily felt senses," the "intuitive feel" you have, of the two people involved. They are more than you could ever put into words, but you can make many words and images from them---30 seconds

 

--- Spend as long as you wish exploring these two experiences, going back and forth between the two "intuitive feels" and looking for words or images to describe the difference---

3 minutes

---And when you are ready, slowly bring your attention back into the room.

        

Remember, it can be much easier to learn Intuitive Focusing in the company of a Focused Listener. You can learn all about Focusing Listening, and find resources, at the website for Creative Edge Focusing (TM)  And you will find additional Complete Focusing Instructions, for personal growth, creativity, and spirituality, in the Instant "Ahah!"s Mini-Manual, available along with newsletter subscription.

 

In order to download these free Complete Focusing Instructions, you joined the Creative Edge Focusing support and practice e-group. Please continue contributing and reading for constant support, demonstrations, and problem solving!!   Hope to see you there!

 
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About Creative Edge Focusing
Located by Beaver Lake in Rogers, AR, our goal is to support people in the practice of listening/focusing skills, throughout the world, and for personal growth, interpersonal conflict resolution, and creative individual and group problem solving.
 
Creative Edge Focusing (TM)
Dr. Kathy McGuire
Director