What can you do when your mind interferes with your Focusing? Read on…
“My Mind is Keeping Me Away from My Body”
Yesterday a student in one of my phone classes said to me, “Ann, what did you mean last week when you said there is no mind?”
Obviously something happens that people call “the mind.” But does it help our Focusing to call some experiences “mind”? I think not… and I think the concept of “mind” itself isn’t helpful for Focusing.
We need concepts. We need a way to talk and think about the world and situations we are in. But, as Gene Gendlin teaches, our concepts come from our experiencing and need to be checked back with and refreshed from our experiencing again.
So it’s OK to ask what the concept of “mind” really refers to and if it serves us, or if we might want to change that concept somehow.
So what do people mean when they say “My mind interferes with my Focusing.” or “My mind is keeping me away from my body.”? They often mean that there is an inner experience of “chatter” taking place up near the eyes or forehead, with some content like “what I need to do” or “what’s wrong.”
They also seem to mean that this “mind chatter” is emotionless… but if one pays attention for a moment, that is clearly not the case! What is called “mind” is always in some kind of emotional state, usually worry, anxiety, or eagerness.
Acknowledging Something in Me that is Worried About…
Once we can connect with the emotional tone of a part of us, it becomes easier to turn toward it with an attitude of interested compassion. We would certainly never push away something in us feeling an emotion! We understand that any aspect of us which is feeling an emotion is part of our wholeness, our richness, our “soul” if you will.
So now we have understood that what is called “mind” is something which has an emotion… So rather than trying to get away from it to get into the body, let’s turn toward it!
“I’m saying hello to something in me that’s reminding me of all I have to do today. Sounds like it’s worried. I can feel it like a slight tightness in my forehead. I’m letting it know I know it’s there… Now I’m feeling my throat. Something in there reacting to all this worry. I’m acknowledging that too…”
When we acknowledge what is here, that lets us feel and acknowledge more. When we push away what is here, or try to get away from it, that doesn’t facilitate sensing, but instead becomes an inner struggle that’s frustrating in itself.
For more about all this, see my new book, The Radical Acceptance of Everything.