Focusing Tip #544 – What kind of Focusing questions might help me find the right way to express myself?

If you know your work needs to change, but you don’t know how, can you find out by Focusing?

Kathleen writes:

I work in two and three dimensions using primarily clay but also drawings and other media. I want to change the direction of my work. What kind of Focusing questions might help me find the right way to express myself?

Dear Kathleen:

The answer is in the wanting.

You want to change the direction of your work. Right there, in the wanting to change, there is also a “knowing” of what would be more right.

Of course it’s probably not yet in words, not yet clear or articulated. And that’s where Focusing comes in.

I’d suggest starting with the felt sense of wanting to change. Sit where you can be uninterrupted for a while, close your eyes, and say to yourself slowly, “I want to change the direction of my work.”

Don’t try to answer the implied question… you’ll just come up with “I don’t know.”

Instead, sense the wanting itself. Something makes your current work feel not quite right anymore. Something draws you forward into a new place. Something in you knows what can’t yet be articulated… but it’s there.

I remember when I was in a job (college professor in linguistics) that I had been preparing for for four years. But once I was there, it didn’t feel right. There were many things I liked, but something felt wrong, and it wasn’t a small thing. I just didn’t know what it was.

Over several weeks of sensing, I began to be able to feel and articulate what was missing: a heart connection with the people I was helping.

Possibly I could have found that within the job, once I knew what it was. But instead I followed my “wanting” to leave that job and become a Focusing facilitator. Voila!

So you can follow the feeling of “something here is not quite right” – as I did – or “I want a new direction.” Either way, find the felt sense and let it be vague and unclear and reveal itself from within.