By Kathy Keary
Society teaches us to suppress our feelings, to distance ourselves from our emotional pain and to distract us from our emotions rather than to care for them in a healthy way.
If you knew that there was a way to listen to the wisdom of your emotions as revealed in your body and care for them in a life-giving way, would you give it a try?
Today we begin a series of videos that look at Focusing, a technique developed by University of Chicago psychologist Eugen Gendlin. Gendlin found that his clients were more likely to improve if they had a relationship with feelings connected to life events and the key to connecting to these feelings was by listening to your body.
Gendlin’s focusing method honors the wisdom that lies within us and speaks to us in a way that can be felt in our bodies. This is known as a felt sense. This felt sense alerts us to what needs our attention. By reverently caring for this bodily reaction, a natural life-enhancing process is nurtured.
Precious Blood Renewal Center began a series of articles exploring Focusing (See them here) and today we launch a series of three videos that further explore Focusing. The videos will appear over the next three consecutive Tuesdays (June 2, 9 and 16).
Check this out: You many also find this companion article useful: Using Our Bodies in Prayer.
If you experience stresses in your life or are weighed down by emotional baggage, you may find this method of focusing to be freeing. I know I have.
[Kathy Keary, a Precious Blood Companion and spiritual director, holds a master’s degree in theological studies and is a graduate of the Atchison Benedictine’s Sophia Center’s Souljourners Program, an intense study of spirituality and spiritual direction. Kathy believes that the divine is present and active in all of life and encourages others to be awakened to the God in all including the divine within. She enjoys accompanying others on their journey to wholeness discovering the person they were created to be.]
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