What if you feel your feelings but you don’t feel them in your body? Read on…
A Reader writes:
I seem to be more in touch with my feelings than with anything in my body. What is the benefit of trying to find where in my body the feelings are?
Dear Reader:
Inner Relationship Focusing is a way of being present to whatever we are aware of. That means anything: feelings, emotions, body sensations, images, thoughts…
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about how you need to feel in your body to do Focusing. And in a way, that’s true.
But what we mean by “body” is much more than merely the physical, physiological body.
According to Eugene Gendlin, the brilliant philosopher and psychotherapist who developed Focusing, your “body” is your whole experienced process as lived from inside.
If you get an image, that’s your body.
If you have a thought, and you pause with it, that’s your body too.
Your feelings and emotions are definitely your body!
“Being in your body” means pausing, dropping down below your concepts and ideas, and letting the fresh “feel” of something come to you.
And it really doesn’t matter whether you can say “it’s in my stomach” or “it’s in my throat.” It’s here somewhere. You can describe it, and you can sense there’s more to it than you’ve put into words.
Focusing is often quite simple… but it’s also different from our usual ways of encountering the world. That’s why it great to have a guide… at first!
