“I’m confused about how this image related to my original question…”
Margaret writes:
I am struggling to know how to make sense of images which come with most of my Focusing sessions.
For instance tonight, I did a Focusing around feeling stuck with an area of my study, feeling unable to form a clear question for research, like I am going round in circles.
A feeling of pressure came to my throat. As I welcomed it, an image came of a crocodile, beautifully strong, gliding through the water. It had a brown disc tied to its head. Feeling into this image, the disc was there to hide and protect the crocodile and simultaneously to give it cover to enable it to hunt.
I was confused about how this image relates to my original question. How does it help me to clarify my experience of stuckness and how to unstick myself?
Dear Margaret:
I can understand being confused. With images, the body speaks directly, without explaining what we are to make of what we are seeing.
It’s tricky because the image is almost certainly about the issue you started the session with, but it’s not going to help to try to think about what the image means, or how it is connected to the issue.
What will help, though, is to keep bearing the issue in mind. Keep it next to you, so to speak. “There is a beautifully strong crocodile gliding through the water AND I want to know more about going around in circles when I try to form a clear question for research.”
For example, what might come next is, “Wow, the crocodile isn’t going around in circles. It’s gliding straight ahead. Hmm.” Then you would pause to get the feel of that in your body. “It feels like the crocodile is showing me what it feels like to glide straight ahead. Yes, that’s what I want the research to feel like.”
And next, perhaps: “I’m inviting the feeling of what is in the way of that. Yeah, it’s like there’s something in me that keeps turning aside instead of going straight. Hmm….”
When there is any kind of stuckness, I find that inviting the feel of “what is in the way” is a very rich avenue. Once it comes, you’ll want to gently listen to it, letting it tell its story from its point of view. Lots can open up from here!