We long to feel connected to something larger than ourselves.
When you gaze up at the stars at night, do you have a sense of being a loved and cherished part of a larger compassionate system?
Or do you feel small and insignificant, and that the universe is cold, chaotic, and uncaring?
Here’s what I’ve learned: The difference between these two worldviews is not an intellectual decision. It’s something you can feel in the wisdom of your body.
Over my 49 years of listening inwardly using Focusing, I’ve made an astonishing discovery: The more I listen within, the more I feel connected to what is much bigger than me.
When life gets hard, you need your sense of something larger even more…
There are times when life can feel impossible. Too many challenges, too much struggle. In those moments, trusting you can lean into the larger system becomes even more precious. I’ve survived some of the hardest times in my life by deeply knowing I was supported by a vast web of interconnection. When I’ve needed it the most, the spiritual dimension has been there for me.
Feelings of disconnection seem like proof that you’re alone, and yet…
Your feelings of alienation and separation say more about your past than about the truth of what is around you now. When kids are hurt or ignored, they try to make sense of the world by seeing it as a cold and uncaring place. But the experience of wholeness has been patiently waiting for you to become aware of it, all this time.
There is a way to consistently tune into a vast presence in your life.
It starts with learning to trust the deep inner knowing in your body, the “inner sense of rightness” that’s built into all living beings from before birth. By trusting and following the knowing within, you can open up to experiences of being held and cared about by what is larger than yourself. These experiences have a universal quality and yet they are also unique to you.
What do we mean by the “Sacred” and the “Now”?
“When you’re inside a Tangle, all your thoughts and ideas, all your actions come from Parts. Parts can’t get us free from Tangles. They create and maintain Tangles! All the strategies of Parts just dig us in deeper. No wonder this all feels so impossible!”The Sacred” points to a special dimension of life that is contrasted with the ordinary or the mundane. It is potentially a transcendent realm of life, a gateway to mystery and the eternal. “The Now” is the present moment, this moment here, embodied and lived fully. Touching the sacred through the now is a paradox of sorts, yet somehow fitting.
“To see a world in a grain of sand, or heaven in a wildflower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake
Last year we gave a course called “Focusing and the More.” We said that people can have their own beliefs and practices and still tap into The More, which is like a fabric of interconnection that we are all part of… and can all feel, if we try. “Touching the Sacred through the Now” is both a continuation of that course and a new take on the topic. We’ve got new exercises, new topics, new experiences. Whether or not you took that course, we believe you will find richness in this one.
⭐️ Get a Free Taste with a Mini-Course ⭐️
Watch a recording of a free one-hour webinar where we’ll:
“Your physically felt body is in fact part of a gigantic system of here and other places, now and other times, you and other people–in fact, the whole universe.”
― Gene Gendlin
Join us in this course where we’ll show you how:
This course is right for you if:
What You’ll Get:
The result: the opportunity to make Touching the Sacred Through the Now a trusted and supportive part of your life from now on.
About Your Teachers
Ann Weiser Cornell is the co-developer (with Barbara McGavin) of Inner Relationship Focusing. Ann learned Focusing in 1972 from its developer, Eugene Gendlin, and was his close friend and colleague to the end of his life.
Ann has written several definitive books on
Focusing, including The Power of Focusing: A Practical Guide to Emotional Self-Healing, and Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change
She has taught Inner Relationship Focusing around the world since 1980, and is a past president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology.
Paula Gamble-Grant has been companioning weary and disoriented, spiritually hungry souls for more than 35 years. As a Focusing-Oriented Spiritual Director, International Retreat Leader, and Supervisor of Spiritual Directors, she loves to hold sacred space for people to overhear their hearts and live into a more authentic version of their God-given self.
During certification training, Paula developed her own Focusing curriculum where she teaches heart and soul-centered healing professionals how to live at E.A.S.E. – in their Embodied Authentic Self Essence.
Paula also loves the Saints and Mystics and has an especially keen fondness for Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi. She leads annual pilgrimage retreats in Assisi, Italy.
Peter Gill been teaching Focusing since 2006 and is accredited with the British Focusing Association and also with the International Focusing Institute. For him, Focusing is much more than a technique or method, it is a way of being in the world.
He has a background in meditation and Buddhism. More recently he has been trained in facilitating nature connection and holding spaces for communal grief work. More and more, he is convinced that the world needs what Focusing has to offer and is committed to finding ways of communicating what he has found so valuable in his own life, and supporting others to do the same.
“As compassionate and loving as you are to your inner parts, there is something larger than you that holds you in that same compassion and love.”
― Ann Weiser Cornell
Are you ready to explore the spiritual side of embodied awareness?
Let’s do it together!
Experience a Sense of the Sacred in Your Own Body
Learn to Trust What You Know
Discover How the Larger System Supports You
Enroll for Your Course Here
Registration is currently closed. Please contact us with any questions.
“Let yourself be slowly drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”
― Rumi
Additional Information
How Online Courses Work
We use Zoom, an online video conference platform, to connect you to other students and the teacher. Before the class starts you will receive a Zoom link to use each time the class meets. You can join us via your camera-equipped computer, tablet, or smart phone. Prefer not to be on video? You can turn off your camera. Don’t want to call via computer? You can call in by phone. Zoom is free and easy to use. You will be able to sign on in advance to make sure you can access it, but we’ve had very few problems with it. Students also receive access to a private webpage where course materials can be found.
Prerequisite
There is no prerequisite for participation in this group. All students are welcome.
Continuing Education Credit& Record of Completion
Course meets the qualifications for 8 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Focusing Resources, CAMFT Approved CE Provider #62524.
Focusing Resources is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs. Focusing Resources maintains responsibility for this course and its content.
There is a $25 administrative fee for CE Credits. Records of Completion are awarded at the end of the course upon completion of all requirements and the course evaluation. (If you don’t want CE Credits but would like a Record of Completion, the $25 fee does still apply.)
Eligibility for CE Credits requires at least 80% live attendance. Missed classes must be made up.
Program Cancellation Policy
Up to 14 days before the first day of class: Just let us know and we’ll refund your course fee. Or you can choose to apply the entire course fee towards a future class with us.
Cancellations received 13 days or fewer before class begins: No refund, sorry.
When Something Doesn’t Go As You’d Hoped…
We are always open to discussing experiences with our courses that didn’t work for you or didn’t go the way you expected. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to email your course instructor, the staff member in charge of your course, or Ann Weiser Cornell. Email addresses for all these people will be supplied on registration. We will work with you to find a way to meet your needs.
