August 1, 2005

Focusing

Ever heard of focusing? I hadn’t either until my Uncle Paul turned me on to it a few months back. It’s form of therapy that involves going “within one’s self” to pick up on feelings that might not be readily apparent at the surface level. The Focusing Institute’s website does a much better job of explaining this than I could.

Focusing is direct access to a bodily knowing.

As in ancient times, philosophy now has a practice derived from it.

With training you can find the entry point to your embodied knowledge. After that, you can become able to stay long enough to interact with it. Then you can do many different things when you reach a profound level.

I tried a focusing session and it was pretty cool although I definitely had the feeling that you would need to do multiple sessions to derive the full benefit. Focusing is a great subject to learn about through audio and video because at it’s heart focusing is very much an auditory activity (focusing partners often conduct sessions via the telephone). Seth just put up some of Ann Cornel’s focusing titles up on our site. If you’re interested in learning more about focusing I would encourage you to check them out.

Introduction to Focusing – A great one to start with if you’re new to focusing.

Learning Focusing – A two CD set that goes a little deeper.

The Power of Listening – A videocassette that seems geared a bit more towards those conducting focusing sessions.

The Return of the Soul – Another of Ann’s videocassettes. This one looks somewhat autobiographical in nature.

If you’re interesting in finding out more about focusing, please visit the website of The Focusing Institute at http://www.focusing.org.