“The body seems tired and the mind restless and generating thoughts… and I do not know if I am making this up.”

A Reader writes:

In Focusing I find many images coming in from past events, random, not knowing what to make of them, trying to feel whatever is “in there”, making room for it, inviting it, but not knowing what I am feeling as I am trying to feel…?

The only thing I seem to be feeling is this vast background of “uncomfortableness”, low level anxiousness, confusion, a “not knowing” what is this, and trying to stay with this… wanting to feel some “shift”, some relief, but it is not coming… the body seems tired and the mind restless and generating thoughts of what to do and not knowing what to do… this feeling of stuckness today… again, trying just to be with it.

I do not know if I am “making it up”, imagining I am feeling something or “really” feeling it. Does this make sense, Ann?

Dear Reader:

“Uncomfortableness” is just the kind of thing we are looking for. You’re doing well. And something else in you wants to know what it is!

I would suggest that you practice… and indeed it may take practice… being aware of your body without doubting or questioning or resisting what you find.

It sounds like you have such a big longing for a release or a shift… and I am not saying you should or could stop having that longing… but see if you can acknowledge the longing so that it is not all of you either.

“I am sensing a big uncomfortableness in my body… and I am sensing something in me wondering what it is… and I am sensing something in me longing for a release… and all of that is here.”

When you acknowledge the parts of you that are reacting to your feelings, it is going to be easier for you to feel the actual feelings that are there, and know that they are there, and you are not making them up.

(If you still aren’t sure, try saying to yourself, “I am NOT feeling uncomfortableness.” You will discover what “No way!” feels like!)