Focusing Tip #744 – “What happens when there is no shift?”
What can we conclude if several Focusing sessions on the same issue don’t bring any change? Read on…
Richard writes:
What happens when there is no shift, just a temporary relaxing, even after several Focusing sessions on the same issue?
Dear Richard:
Such a good question… because we do expect Focusing to lead to real change, not just temporary relief. So when it doesn’t, we have a right to be curious about why not.
I can think of two reasons why you wouldn’t get a shift even after several Focusing sessions on the same issue.
One reason is that your process might need more time.
A single Focusing session is part of a larger process—like a paragraph within a chapter of a book. You can probably feel within the session itself that this is true. At the end, you might have a sense like “This needs more time… and I’ll come back to it.”
There is often a “learning to trust” kind of process that unfolds within several Focusing sessions. We learn how valuable it is to give ourselves the time we need.
And the second reason I can think of is that there might be an invisible part in the way of change.
Like an impatient part, or a fixing part, or a part that will only allow certain answers but not others. In other words, a worried part! In which case, turning to acknowledge that, and maybe Focusing with it for a while, will probably bring a loosening of the whole thing.
One way to detect this kind of invisible part is to be curious about the quality with which you are accompanying your Focusing process.
“Am I anxious for this to change? Ah… then let me say Hello to something in me that is anxious for this to change… And now I can be with all of this, with patience and quiet compassion.”
Oh… and there is one other possibility… and that is that the issue you are Focusing with might be a Tangle… More about that later!
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