The Felt Sense

This guided meditation was developed by Eugene Gendlin (1984) to help therapists and clients drop into their somatic felt sense. The exercise may bring about clarity from the subconscious mind, as it encourages you to notice, acknowledge, and accept what your body is experiencing. It may bring rise to underlying emotions and help you resolve unacknowledged feelings.

The exercise is spoken by Rebecca Rylands with music by David Rylands, "Marvel Lake" album 2020, used with permission.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Rebecca Rylands. Today I'm going to take you through a felt-sense exercise originally developed by Eugene Gendlin. This exercise is designed to help you get in touch with your inner somatic experiencing so that you may gain insights into what your body's messages may be trying to tell you. When we slow down we are more likely to be able to hear these whisperings. Start by sitting upright in your chair, Uncross your legs and place your hands on your lap. If it is comfortable for you to do so you can fully close or half close your eyes or keep them open as you feel comfortable. We will begin by taking three breaths. On the inhale we will breathe in fully through our nose, Filling up our abdomen and our chest with air. Breathing out we will draw the breath out slowly exhaling through our mouth. Let's breathe together now. Breathe in through the nose, Now filling up the abdomen. Now let's breathe out slowly through the mouth for a second time. In through the nose, Now let's breathe out through the mouth for a third time. Breathing in and when exhaling you can sigh along with me as you feel comfortable. Now keeping our eyes closed we will bring our awareness down into the core of our body. That is the area between the top of the head and the base of the spine, The chest and abdomen. As we tune into this area we will retrieve our felt sense. To do this we will now feel into this part of the body and ask ourselves how does it feel to be me in this moment? What is the felt experience of being me right now? If you're experiencing some pain or an issue in your life, What is the felt sense relating to this? What do you make of it there in your body? As you ask yourself this question, Tune in and see what you make of it in this part of the body. What do you find there? Whether it is a feeling, A sensation, An intuition, An image or a knowing of any kind. Whatever you find there is correct. Just take some time there to be receptive to what you find. When you have found your felt sense you will allow for a handle to come. The handle is a word or phrase that helps you identify your felt sense. Just pause there with your felt sense and wait for the word or words to come out of the felt sense. When a word or phrase comes out just go back and forth between the handle and the felt sense to check that they resonate. When you feel they do just stay there for a moment or two, Compassionately holding your felt sense. See if you can now quietly and internally identify what the felt sense needs from you right now. It might need to be held in a certain way. You might want to reassure it or tell it something it needs to hear from you. You may even want to imagine giving it something in whatever way makes sense to you. See if you can meet the inner need of the felt sense in some way. Notice any shifts that occur in your felt sense. Taking as long as you need with that in your own time. Whenever it feels right you can come back into the room and open your eyes.

Reviews

This is such a simple and gentle felt sense practice. I started with this when I first learned about felt sense and I come back to it time and time again. This is a really beautiful practice, thank you 🙏🏽

Good instruction and guidance.

Wonderful visualization Rebecca thanks for sharing