Grupa wsparcia dla Ukraińskich Przyjaciół

on the wings of Focusing – what does THAT mean?

Focusing is an orientation, a way of being with yourself and others with an open and curious attitude … with trust and reverence to what comes in the body. You learn it by practicing it … sharing time and space with others who fell in love in this very special attitude … no matter what your way of helping others is  – we are all helpers in our own way … trusting the process itself, not wanting to make things happen.

In Focusing, you spend time with something that is not yet clear, that is vague and fuzzy, that doesn’t yet have words you can put to it, yet you can feel and sense it in your body. Here are two quotes from Eugene Gendlin – the father of Focusing:

Under all the packages each of us carries, a different self can be discovered. E. Gendlin

Through focusing we can unlock doors and move into dimensions that cannot be entered through the intellect alone. E. Gendlin

what will it look like?

We will start with a focusing attunement – which is a way of just inviting you to slow everything down and become aware of what is happening in your body, and to put the world aside for this time, and be with yourself and the group. There will be time for individual work …There will be time for sharing at the end … only if you would like to – always honouring your own sense of safety … and trusting your inner process … sometimes silence is the best way to be with what is coming … and that is ok too – what wants to remain confidential and unspoken is met and accepted just as much as all what you want to share …THIS IS IMPORTANT – YOU DON’T HAVE TO KNOW FOCUSING … what matters – is being with yourself without judgment … in the slower rhythm … trusting there is no right or wrong here … this is just an invitation to learn the art of truly tuning into yourself by asking – how am I right now? … You can remain silent with this, you can write down the words or phrases that will emerge … or perhaps you will feel the urge to play with colours and the softness of the crayons … or you will want to turn off the camera and move … or let your tears come and tell you something important quietly 🙂 This is your process, and you decide what form of expression is important for you today … our invitations are just showing possibilities how to open the door … and it is you – nurturing your inner tree of life, feeling the rhythm of your heart and listening to your own breath.You can come once or sit with us every other Wednesday in October and November … and the four sessions in this autumn will have some flow and continuity … and maybe we will find a way to go forward into a new year, and the group will continue … always welcoming warmly the newcomers and those coming back … let’s be open and see where it can lead us.We will sit together … meeting ourselves and others where we are in our life journeys … just allowing our awareness to rest inside … maybe it will open a breath connecting us with more than our everyday struggles … allowing fresh air, a shift in our sense of being lost or tensed … opening the door to feel and to know you are alive … to find this very personal inner sparkle … a light that comes to you, not from outside, but from the depths you don’t know well enough to call your own … where your inner tree grows …Yes, there is a way to do it … to get in touch with your body, pause and listen deeply to that inner whispering calling you to make space … maybe resting in the darkness of not knowing … the good news is that you do not have to talk about it … we are living metaphors we often do not understand … and if “words don’t come easy” – you can let your hands be your voice – we will have paper and crayons and other “art materials” … we will sit together sensing inwards – expressing the essence of all our sensing and feelings – “the all of that”.Whatever comes in your life, whether it is happy or sad, big or small, you have a clear feeling of all of that in your body … even if it feels like “nothing“ – it is always a something you can listen to it … to the qualities of it … how big is this nothing … maybe it feels warm … or cold … looks blue … or is heavy or light. In Focusing you learn how to pay attention to this subtle language of your feeling, living, breathing body. You learn to notice that there is a river of experience constantly flowing through you, that you are alive … and we can live with great tension – not even noticing it … and the times are so challenging, that yes, it is possible to forget our aliveness … So, we really need this practice to find whatever can help us there. Your heart knows your way.

There is a sort of lightness in the way you can be with yourself, that makes it possible for you, to see something bigger than your problems … and your heart knows your way …

There is a sort of lightness in the way you can be with others, that makes it possible for them, to see something bigger than their problems … and your heart knows your way …

There’s something more that happens when we come together in a group … something new is being born … coming to life … It’s a bit mysterious and words don’t always come easy to describe this “togetherness” … it helps us to enter a kind of a space where we can be – in giving and receiving … holding and being held … it opens new possibilities in our own journey in a way that is not easy while sitting alone …  It is happening not only in what is being said literally, but also in listening to what is trying to emerge from underneath … that brings a truly felt experience in the heart and body … that brings more … and the beauty of it is that we can give it to each other … and also grow together.Maybe you feel it is too difficult now … or do not know where to start … so, this will be a place you can come  and let all these feelings be there … and let your attention simply rest … no searching … no new planning how to get rid of this or have more of that … just being with yourself, with others, just as we are … allowing yourself to open a doorway to a space where it is possible to transform your life in a way that feels right here and now for you.The good news is – Focusing is a practice everyone can learn quite easily. It is very delicate, always respects where you are now and you can learn to access the space beyond your thoughts to find the „more” that is happening in any situation. When we are in contact with our direct experience of the “more”, small steps of change begin to emerge, and this can lead us on to fresh lifegiving directions, even during hard times of war. Our hope is that step by step you’ll have a greater sense of resilience and relief and feel you are not alone. We will dive gently into experience with an intention to really make a living, loving being together, that can help you to feel more grounded, to breathe more freely connecting your breath with the big breath of the more. ☺ https://focusing.org/felt-sense/what-focusing/