Focusing Tip #756 – “I don’t know if this physical sensation is a felt sense.”
-Focusing Tip #756 – “I don’t know if this physical sensation is a felt sense.” Do you get confused by not knowing where your body sensations come from? Read on… Margriet writes: Sometimes I get a bit confused: I don’t know whether a physical sensation is caused by just having done too much with my body, or whether it’s a felt sense. Today I felt an aching in my chest, but maybe it was just because I’d been lifting boxes. Any ideas on how…
Focusing Tip #755 – “I can’t accept this emotionally abusive part of me.”
-Focusing Tip #755 – “I can’t accept this emotionally abusive part of me.” Do you have an emotionally abusive part in you that you don’t want to accept? Read on… Susie writes: I have recently acknowledged a part of me that is very mean and very emotionally abusive. This part is essentially a mirror of my stepmother who abused me horribly. I am so angry that this “abusive stepmother” part even exists inside of me. I understand that part of Focusing is allowing all…
Focusing Tip #754 – “How can I get a felt sense when I don’t have one?”
-Focusing Tip #754 – “How can I get a felt sense when I don’t have one?” What can you do if you don’t find any feelings… yet you know they are in there somewhere? Read on…. Edward writes: Sometimes there is no awareness of a felt sense in my experience. When I’m with a partner, his/her presence helps me with that. But when I’m Focusing alone and I don’t sense any felt sense, I feel like giving up. I believe that we cannot force…
Focusing Tip #753 – Focusing when the feelings are “too much”
-Focusing Tip #753 – Focusing when the feelings are “too much” What can you do when your feelings are so intense that they scare you… and it feels like even feeling them is too much? Read on… Edward writes: I need help with what to do when in Focusing I go through intense feelings like anxiety, anguish, stress, etc. When it is too much, I stop the experience in order not to re-traumatize. But then I don’t know how I can get back to…
Focusing Tip #752 – My traumatic hospital stay – pain
-Focusing Tip #752 – “My traumatic hospital stay…” Can sensitive and empathic awareness help with the physical pain of activation? Read on… A Reader writes: Recently I had to stay in the hospital and it was very traumatic. It also triggered trauma from earlier in my life. Now, even though I am out of the hospital, I feel activation in my nervous system and body most of the time. It’s unpleasant and can be quite painful and I’m not sure what I can do…
Focusing Tip #751 – “I carry so much wounding from how my parents treated me”
-Focusing Tip #751 – “I carry so much wounding from how my parents treated me” Do you find yourself blaming others (like your parents) for your painful feelings now? Read on… A Reader writes: I keep blaming my parents for how I feel. I carry so much wounding from how they treated me, and it limits my life. How can I shift these feelings that are because of how my parents treated me? Dear Reader: “Blaming” is an interesting phenomenon. Sometimes we blame others.…
Focusing Tip #750 – “I have to be careful not to ruminate on negativity”
-Focusing Tip #750 – “I have to be careful not to ruminate on negativity.” Do depressive feelings and thoughts ever pull you in… and what do you do then? Read on… Gene writes: I have depressive episodes, and have to continually watch my thoughts that I do not ruminate and go into negativity. How do I be sure that my Focusing is not just another form of ruminating? I try to keep myself from merging with the feelings, and just observe, but that does…
Focusing Tip #749 – “My felt sense disappears when I look at it”
-Focusing Tip #749 – “My felt sense disappears when I look at it” Is your inner world a safe place for your feelings and felt senses? Read on… Cveta writes: When I’m Focusing I have the experience of the felt sense just vanishing the moment I direct attention to it, and a different felt sense appearing elsewhere. This makes it difficult to stay with something, because the something doesn’t stay with me! Dear Cveta: Yes, I know this can happen! Very disconcerting! In general…
Focusing Tip #748 – “Do you no longer ask a felt sense what it needs?”
-Focusing Tip #748 – “Do you no longer ask a felt sense what it needs?” How do you create a compassionate relationship with something that you feel? Read on… Richard writes: In your earlier writing about Focusing, one of the steps in the protocol is “I’m asking what it needs.” In the more recent materials this step is not mentioned. Do you no longer ask a felt sense what it needs? I notice, in my view at least, that the more recent materials focus…
Focusing Tip #747 – Is the tightness in my chest a felt sense?
-Focusing Tip #747 – “Is the tightness in my chest a felt sense?” Is the tightness in your chest giving you wise inner guidance? Or something else? Read on… John writes: In an exercise on contacting the inner critic, I felt my inner critic as a physical sensation (a tightness in my chest just below my throat). Now I’m confused. I wonder how I can distinguish between a felt sense that is guiding me and the sensation of an inner critic. Dear John: I…
