What does it mean when you’re in the middle of Focusing and suddenly you go blank? Read on…
Barb writes:
Last week you wrote about feelings of sleepiness during Focusing as “something in me is sending sleepiness.” Feels like a powerful way to get to more!
I wonder: is this true of everything? Something of me is sending: critical voices, feelings of shame, terror, etc?
Dear Barb:
Let’s see… What are the phenomena that are like sleepiness if they come during a Focusing session?
Going blank is one of them. Another one is going “foggy.”
“What was I just saying? I can’t even remember. It’s all foggy now.”
It’s a good guess that sleepiness, blankness, or fogginess are sent by a part of us if these things happen just as we are getting close to something tender, raw, fragile, delicate. Another part of us gets scared that too much is going to get opened up. It sends sleepiness, blankness, or fogginess in order to slow us down.
Another possibility would be getting easily distracted, or intellectualizing instead of staying with the feelings that are there.
These are all examples of our organism’s inner ability to protect itself!
Yes… shame and inner criticism can also be sent with this same kind of motive. Not always… but it’s possible. Having a part that says critical things to us can happen for many reasons, not just this one, so it’s not possible to generalize, but it could be.
Most important of all: Being Self-in-Presence. Self-in-Presence is the way through all of these situations. When you grow your ability to be your calm, steady Self, unafraid and compassionate to all the scared parts, then everybody inside can begin to trust that you CAN handle those parts of you.
And that’s very good news, because YOUR presence is what those vulnerable, fragile parts need most of all!
