Focusing Tip #607 – “Focusing is a way of being present to the life within us, and how that life wants to live….”

Dear Readers:

One year ago I was teaching Treasure Maps/Untangling™ in Greece, when I got the call (on May 1) that Gene Gendlin had died. Today I sit with a soft ache, because I miss him… and at the same time I am so grateful at the way that the gift he gave us – Focusing – has touched and transformed so many lives. Including my own.

Focusing is not just another method. It’s a way of being present to the life within us, and how that life wants to live.

Other methods show us how to be open and to accept what is. And that much alone is great. Gene did more. He showed us how to be open in such a way that the “more that is there but not yet formed” can emerge as the next right steps of life.

So even now, as I sit with the soft ache in my chest, and I find the words, “missing Gene” to name it… I know there is more to it than that. I know I can sit with it and feel the “more” that is there, even before I can name it. And I know that the “more” – when I find it – will bring me a deeper breath and a release and a sense of forwardness.

Staying with any felt sense in this curious and accepting way will bring something that Gene named a “felt shift.” A beautiful term for a sense of both relief and hope at the same time!

No… “hope” is not the right word. Because it’s not just hope that I feel. It’s a sense that life is already moving forward. My body life is already freer than it was. And that’s why this is such an amazing process!