Focusing Tip #838 – “My felt senses aren’t new or fresh”

Are you getting stuck because a part of you doubts what you feel? Read on…

Yun writes:

I have something I would like to ask, it’s about the process feeling stuck. There’s a part of me that doesn’t trust or believe what I sense or feel with my felt sense. It feels that this felt sense showed up before already and it is not new or fresh. It says, “You are just repeating yourself.”

Dear Yun:

As a Focusing teacher with over 35 years’ experience, I have heard this question many times before. You are not alone!

I think the problem is that a “felt sense” is defined as something “new” and “fresh,” something we haven’t felt before.

So a part of us decides to take the job of doubting and questioning anything we feel that isn’t new or fresh!

But as you’ve observed, that doesn’t help. It leads to feeling stuck. Why?

Because the only way to get to something new and fresh is to accept whatever we do feel, even if we have felt it many times before.

Felt senses form in an environment of acceptance!

“This is how I feel right now.” And then: “What is it like? How would I describe it?”

Everything you feel has more to it. There is more richness, more complexity, more depth than you can feel at first. You can’t get to that richness unless you accept what you feel at first as the starting place.

Speaking of starting places, I knew a woman who started every Focusing session with a sensation of dryness in her eyes. But when she paid attention to that, it went on to a different outcome every time. And a very rich Focusing process!

What I’d recommend is that you let go of the concept of “felt sense” for a while. Your mission is to feel something… and then create an accepting inner space where you can get curious about whatever it is.

I predict you won’t be stuck for long!