“Nothing is stable, everything is fluctuating, so that I cannot stay with anything.”
Eila writes:
Being a very new Focuser I often have difficulties from the very beginning of a session because a wealth of impressions come fleetingly. For example: slight pain in one foot, a brief feeling of something in the jaw that immediately disappears again, or a very brief funny sensation in the stomach. Nothing is stable, everything is fluctuating, so that I cannot stay with anything. What would you suggest?
Dear Eila,
The kind of process that you describe is very familiar to me. We bring awareness into the body at the start of Focusing…and then we don’t find something stable to be with, as we suppose would be right, but somehow many different quick impressions that disappear almost as soon as they are noticed.
Just imagine what might be going on for a process to feel like that! The impression I get is of a crowd of shy children, each one peeking out and then hiding again as soon as she is spotted.
The key word here is “shy.” Very likely there is something in you (or more than one something) that would like your attention but it is shy, and not sure yet that it is safe.
So then YOU be steady and stable. YOU be the one who is there, making a welcoming space for whatever comes inside. And send the message: “It’s OK if you want to come and go. That’s OK. I am here.”
Give it time. Just wait, and keep sensing. Trust that these quick appearances are from something in you that is learning to trust you.
Over time, as you are steadily there, something will come to meet you.