Is it hard to believe you can be Self-in-Presence? Read on…
Eli writes:
I’m currently working with a client who has a very harsh inner critical voice. She is having trouble trusting my word for it when I try to invite her into a space that is not this part, but is Self-in-Presence. What do you suggest?
Dear Eli:
I haven’t had much success either in telling clients they can be such a thing as Self-in-Presence, instead of caught up in an inner critic.
Telling people things goes to the intellectual space, and there, critics win! They are really good at logic!
I prefer to invite people directly into the role of Self-in-Presence without ever using the term “Self-in-Presence.” Because as soon as we talk about these things, people tend to doubt it, and to doubt themselves.
So when an inner critic appears, I say,
“Maybe you can turn toward the one in you who is saying that, and be curious what it might be worried about.”
The word in that sentence that refers to Self-in-Presence is the word “you.”
That’s typical when we are inviting another person into Focusing:
“Maybe you can be with that.”
“Maybe you can acknowledge that.”
That simple word “you” connects with the ability in the Focuser to be present for themselves.
And it’s nothing we have to mistrust or argue with! It’s simply how it is. We do have the ability to turn toward and be with how we’re feeling. Lovely!
