Focusing gets you in touch with what is real and true, and you discover that the facts are friendly!
Know Thyself
Last week I visited the astonishing ancient site of Delphi, in Greece. In reading about it, I learned that Socrates’ famous phrase–“Know thyself”–came from the oracle at Delphi.
As I look back over 33 years with Focusing, I feel one of the greatest gifts of “Living a Focusing Life” is knowing myself.
But that isn’t just a “head” knowing. It isn’t an analytical knowing. It’s a deep sense of contact, of being “with” myself, being “in” who I am. Feels very very good.
Going From Body Sensing to Felt-Sensing
We talked last week about the importance of being able to sense in your body, if that’s unfamiliar territory. When I started learning Focusing, body awareness was so new to me, I could hardly feel my body at all. I needed to practice that awareness, simply sensing how I felt.
But Focusing is more than just body awareness. Focusing involves felt-sensing. What’s that? Felt-sensing is hard to define and describe because it’s something which has really never been defined before. My favorite example is the story that Gene Gendlin tells about forgetting something. You’re packing for a trip and you know you’ve forgotten something. How do you know? Where do you feel that knowing? And when you finally remember what it was… even if you’re already on the plane… where do you feel the relief?