Your Next Step - Focusing Journal Practice

So few of us know how to listen to and decode the wisdom in our bodies. Focusing, founded by Eugene Gendlin, involves holding open, non-judging attention to your internal knowing, which is experienced in the body but is not yet in words.

This Focusing Journal Practice will help you to sense into the next growth step that is trying to emerge from within a current problem. It is helpful to understand that your body is always leaning into its next growth step; you just need to learn how to listen to and act upon it.

If you have trouble identifying the more subtle cues about your uncomfortable emotional states, you will be supported to address the "stuck feelings" in your body through Gendlin's six classic Focusing steps.

Transcript

Welcome.

This focusing journal meditation will support you to find your next positive growth steps by sensing deeply into your body.

So for this meditation,

You will need a journal that you can hold in your lap and a pen.

So just settle into a comfortable position and take a few deep breaths as I introduce you to this powerful method of going within to find the deeper solutions to your problems.

This focusing journal meditation is inspired by the philosopher Eugene Gendlin,

The founder of the focusing method.

And he said,

Most traditional methods of working on oneself are mostly pain-centered.

People get to repeat over and over their painful emotions without knowing how to use the body's own inherently positive direction and force.

So if you have trouble identifying the more subtle cues around your uncomfortable emotional states,

I'm going to support you to address the stuck feelings in your body.

And this journaling meditation process will also help you to sense into the next growth step that is trying to emerge from within your current issue.

So we'll begin with part one of the focusing process,

Which is called clearing a space,

Clearing a space in your body.

So to begin with in your journal,

I invite you to write down the word problems.

Now on any given day,

You're likely to have a half a dozen problems that keep you feeling stuck inside.

So you might ask yourself questions to find out what is feeling wrong.

You might ask,

For example,

What is bugging me right now?

How is my life going?

What is the main thing for me right now?

I like the question when I'm feeling off or troubled emotionally,

Why don't I feel wonderful right now?

So you might just write down the question.

Why don't I feel wonderful right now?

And next,

I invite you to write a short list of problems.

Imagining as you do this that you can symbolically remove the problems out of your body by listing them in your journal.

But don't try to list every problem you can think of.

Only the main problems that you're feeling tense about right now.

And if you do not know why you're not feeling great,

Just describe the places in your body that feel tight,

Sore,

Or uncomfortable.

And just use your imagination to place your problems outside of your body,

In front of you,

And into your journal.

Just get them out of your body.

Just get them out of your body and survey them from a distance.

And I will wait for a minute or so while you write down a few problems that stop you from feeling really good right now.

And you can always stop this recording at any time if you need more time to contemplate.

So begin now.

Next in step one,

Clearing his face in your body,

I invite you to write down the words,

Background feeling.

Because now we're going to check into the consistent background feeling that you carry within your body.

Now you could call this your habitual human emotional set point.

This might feel like your personality normal,

Or your familiar eco state.

So describe this ongoing background feeling in your journal.

And for most people,

There is usually a habitual way of not feeling so great.

You might have a constant hum of anxiety,

For example.

Or you might feel empty or resentful underneath it all.

And the way that Eugene Jenlin explained it was,

There is often also a background feeling,

Some way you always feel,

Always gray,

Always a little sad,

Always rushing or running scared,

Always trying hard,

Always lonely,

Etc.

And whatever your always feeling is,

Take that out of your body too.

And he added that often,

It is taking the background feeling out and putting it down in your journal or placing it outside of your body.

That's what opens up the big space.

And by big space,

He meant there is a deeper place of soul well being that also always exists in your being.

So just write your background feeling down.

And if you do not really know what it is,

Just take a minute to sense what feels familiar inside of you.

And just feel that for a while.

And I will wait for a minute while you write down your sense of this background of this background feeling that you habitually carry in your body.

Just noticing what you normally always feel now.

Now,

Staying cheerfully detached from your problems,

Both your presently emerging problems that are coming up today,

And your deeper background problems,

You can just say,

Well,

Except for all of this,

I am fine.

I am fine.

And so now for the final step in stage one of focusing,

Clearing a space in your body,

I invite you to write down the two words,

All fine.

Because you will also have an even deeper sense of well being running at all times that is covered up with the static of your human problems.

This sense of all fine is essentially your soul,

Which always remains unaffected by the vicissitudes of this world.

So just sense into how you feel when everything is all fine.

Invite a word,

A phrase,

Or an image to come forward to describe this familiar feeling of soul well being that sometimes peeks out from behind all of your problems.

Just writing down a few descriptive words about what your soul essence feels like.

Sensing for the next minute or so how you feel really well at the deepest soul level of yourself.

And just feel and describe your soul tone now.

Now before we move on to stage two in the focusing process,

We're going to choose a problem to work through in this focusing session.

Focusing teacher Ann Weiser Cornell says,

A problem is a missing of something needed.

So what we will be eventually searching for today is this missing of something needed in order to solve your problem.

So choose one problem by asking yourself which problem feels the worst right now,

Or perhaps there is one that wants your attention right now.

You might sense into which problem hurts the most or feels the heaviest,

The biggest,

Sharpest,

The most prickly or clammy or sticky.

Or if this is your first time focusing,

You might be better off to choose a smaller problem until you can come to know and trust how this process works.

So choose a problem to work on today and write it down in your journal now.

So in stage two of the focusing process,

We're going to find a felt sense for the problem.

So you can write down the words felt sense in your journal.

Now don't go inside the problem as you normally would,

For this is the place of emotional overwhelm.

Stand back from the problem instead and ask,

How does this whole problem feel?

But don't answer in words right away,

Just feel the problem whole.

Feel the overall sense of all that is your problem.

Now,

The main thing in this step of finding a felt sense of a problem is to just be quiet.

Be quiet.

So just ask yourself to be quiet and listen to your body and feel.

And if you're quiet enough,

The feel of this problem can come to you whole without details,

Like listening to a piece of music made up of many notes and yet having just one whole sense of it.

So try to get down to the single feeling of all that about this problem.

And if it helps you to draw or write down a few vague impressions about how this felt sense is forming,

You can do this now and I'll wait for a minute while you reflect upon and perhaps record upon and perhaps record a few vague impressions that are freshly arising from your body about this problem.

Keeping in mind that a felt sense feels very vague at first,

So you might just start by describing your uncomfortable body sensations.

Now.

Now,

In step three in the focusing process,

We're going to find a description for the problem.

In focusing,

This is sometimes called a handle,

Getting a handle on the felt sense.

So now I'm going to invite you to describe or draw the emerging felt sense that you have just been feeling.

So write down the word description in your journal and close your eyes for a moment and find a word,

Phrase,

Or image for the felt sense.

You might sense a quality like sticky,

Heavy,

Jumpy,

Helpless,

Tight,

Burdened,

Etc.

Etc.

Or you might find a short phrase such as like in a box or have to perform.

A combination of words might work best like scared tight or jumpy,

Restless.

Or the description of an image that's coming to mind.

Might work better.

You might also sense that your problem exists in a very specific part of your body.

Or you might see a visual symbol for your felt sense.

Almost like you would see in a nighttime dream.

So try out some different words or descriptions or pictures until you feel bodily shift of rightness and then discard everything else.

You'll know which one feels right.

And just take a minute now to write down this description or perhaps draw it in the form of a symbol or an image.

Now,

Next,

The fourth step in the focusing process is called resonating.

So you might write down the word resonating.

And we're going to check the description.

This is a double checking of your words or symbols or images with your body's felt sense to see if they resonate.

And you want to make sure that the words or the images are just right with the felt sense.

Your word,

Phrase or symbol might want to change,

But just keep going and checking until you get a sense of rightness.

So checking between how you have symbolized or found words for your body's felt sense to make sure that they resonate.

And changing your words or images to match the felt sense better if need be.

Now,

The fifth stage of focusing is called asking.

And consider that you will know what is missing even before it can be articulated.

This is because what is wrong contains within it what would feel right instead.

So listen to the word or see the image that you have decided is right for your felt sense of the problem and tune into your felt sense for one more minute.

If you used a word,

For example,

Say it was jumpy,

You could ask,

What about this whole problem makes me so jumpy?

Now,

If you hear a lot of fast answers from your head,

Just let them go.

What comes swiftly is often old information from your habitual mind.

The memory-based mind often rushes in and gives you no time to contact what wants to emerge directly.

So ask yourself a question that you're curious about and wait.

This is not meant to be hard work,

But it is a friendly,

Curious time with your body inquiring.

This is because words and images that flow out of the felt sense offer a freshly felt difference.

So just repeat your open-ended questions until your felt sense stirs and wants to give you an answer.

So you might ask questions such as,

What is the worst of this?

Or what would it take for this to feel okay?

Or what does the felt sense of this problem need?

So you might take a few minutes now to ask your felt sense what it needs or ask what it would take to make this feel okay now.

And now,

The sixth and final stage of focusing is called receiving.

So whatever comes in a focusing session,

Just welcome it.

Welcome the wisdom that your body offers you,

Whatever it says.

This process usually offers only one positive bodily shift in a session and it is not the last word on any issue.

It is typically just a layer of emotional disturbance that has cleared.

And your conscious mind does not need to believe,

Agree with,

Or do what the felt sense says.

You just need to receive it fully for now.

For with each shift,

Your body changes and your positive life direction will appear step by step.

So I encourage you to be willing to consider receiving just one positive forward step today.

And once you locate this one felt shift,

It is very much like a new place inside.

A newly loved,

Fully seen spot in your inner landscape.

And once you know where it is and how to find it in your body,

You can leave it and tend to it later if need be.

And I'll be quiet for a few more moments as you muse upon what has come from your body today and how you've named or symbolized it.

And how you've been able to ask your body for a forward direction that will help your problem feel less heavy and less hopeless and less hard.

So just close your eyes and receive what has come today for about one minute and see if there's a forward step that wants to clarify,

That wants to emerge from the felt sense that you have contemplated today.

And begin now.

And now welcoming you back and encouraging you to take some kind of forward action on what your body wisdom has communicated with you today.

Welcome back and have a beautiful day.

Reviews

So good! I appreciate you putting this together and offering it here. I needed something today and I wasn’t sure what it was. This session fit the bill!