Working with general bodily “Felt-Senses”

[Anonymous]

I’m wondering about the use of inner/outer dissolving for general bodily felt-senses. I refer to the Focusing Technique which is a more psychological approach which focuses on an emerging, not yet describable sense of something until it can be symbolized in language and reveal its meaning, causing bodily shifts.
The way I understand it, this method of meditation involves finding very specific parts of one’s being that are blocked or do not feel right and work from the top down. What I find much of the time, is that when I sit to do this, I find a general bodily sense, such as a sense of a “something” in my middle for example, that seems to pull me towards it to sit with rather than to move to the top of my head. Sometimes I don’t even get to working from the head down because these more general felt senses seem to want my focus much more.

[Anonymous]

Hey David,

I’m not famaliar with the focusing technique so I can’t really comment on that side of things.

I’m not clear on your question. Are you asking about outer dissolving or inner dissolving?

It seems like you’re saying that you find it hard to work in a steady systematic way down from the top of your head and instead you want to skip ahead to some powerfully felt block lower down in your body? And your wondering if that is okay? Is that what you mean?

Janak

[Anonymous]

That’s basically what I’m asking. Is it more prudent to work with what seems to be the main thing in the moment, even if it doesn’t follow the head-down pattern.

You would have to study the phenomenology of Focusing and the work of Dr. Gendlin. It’s similar to the dissolving method except it’s more about general feeling that becomes specific and reveals psycho-emotive meaning and releasing “life forward movement.” I use it liberally in therapy. But I’ve come to a point in my own development that I don’t usually find these “felt-senses” to release. Bruce’s methods seem to work similarly but have the ability to work much deeper than Focusing.

[Anonymous]

Hello, I have worked with the Focusing Tech of E.G. -actually I learned it prior to learning Sinking and Dissolving/release/let-go from Bruce.. so both for a while.

I find they are a bit different, and first of all- the systematic downward has a number of aspects (most of all the development of steady-continuity in energetic flow, a new tendency vs “monkey-mind” vs encouraging the monkey-mind: jump here and there- seems not, but that is what our usual tendency is…. also starting at “the top” and then downward along with gravity.. solidly grounding within the body’s feeling- not “feeling” .. ie “within” the body, not felt-about the body).

most of all, myself working the feltsense-shift, as well as with others- it is like someone ‘visualizing’ and gazing in the mid-distance.. the “eyes” seem to “look” someplace, but that is just to disassociate vision- and then create (in that viz-place of mind)… the Focusing tech is like this.. it isn’t so much felt, in the gut or the chest (nor head-eyes– though these could be felt as soft-tension held, like a facial-expression as ‘think’)… for ex feeling in the left-hand- not pay attention ‘towards’ L-hand and think.. nor even feel into (in general)- but into the flesh of parts of the palm (blood circ changes thereby- and can see, subtly, color-changes thus).. -oft if one feels the “left hand” that triggers an assoc (aha) and then you find an image arises, or a more “emotional-tone-type-feeling’.. and these occur in the “viz-place’… thus the focus shifted from the “left hand” elsewhere- vs stay there (actually the pop-out tendency of encounter what is there, and split second at first contact- jumps to symbol-rep mode).
As example the tighten fist till cramps and slowly release, not as move the fingers, but change the ‘energy’ ie release the fists contraction… and sense its slowly shift- the gradual give-take… and changes thereby (clearly revealed reason is used, per the chill-sense)… [more detail of that ex, listed in some other posts on this forum]

[above aspects may all be familiar to you.. and likely your experience with the Focusing tech may vary- but the context and application-frame given for the Focusing tech is very different, more a “what does this make you think?” as the attention slips… vs soaking attn-into a place (which, when felt, isn’t clearly “up there” or someplace in relation to other places- on body- as just exper-feel it.. it just is).

…..
Last, I find that the Focusing Tech has a couple of interesting issues that seem not as accessible- it seems very partner-exchange, thus the first step of verbal-vocab based (vs doing in one’s own mind).. but once one has some skill with the technique- can embody it on the fly… the idea of resonate-handle of what most exactly gives-back precisely what is expressed: is any word really expressing a felt-sense? (if so, it isn’t felt purely.. until beneath that layer)… at first an unvoiced-sound… and then soundless and yet “emitted” (perhaps transmitted)- feel-project back the feeling-feltsense they “send” (send in the sense, that someone can feel a certain emotion- but if they really feel-it, and try and “send” it- they immerse and embody that.. nor explicitly comm. via overt facial-expressions.. but felt…. ~mirror-neurons? per modern physio).

anyway- try and “sayback” to yourself.. a word (if one “fully” encapsulates.. -does it? inquiry…- felt-sense response? ,, >)
not? a tone-sound-onomatopoeia… if that “fully” encapsulates

as refine- find that not just the felt-sense contacts are more subtle, but that your sense of does it match or not.. refines… then just re-emit that feeling to your self…
(rather than thinking it is the verbal-center relating to the symbolic-rep interpreting aspect that feels bio-tones….. tap part of subcon, and then “conscious-intention” can think-back that similar and yet non-altered and non-filtered back… resonance between.. ) -this aspect can have some dissolving relations of purpose (and can do in ‘self-practice” this same -non-spoken by felt and respond- with another person…. much as push-hands/tuishou… and tuina- is feeback/response back and forth, beyond/before/beneath words… and the appropriateness of the match (or not) is quite apparent…

But doing this in relation to feeling what is there- is quite different- as is like looking at a window and ‘seeing the glass’ – so easy for gaze to look through./slip beyond, or look in front of-nearer… but to feel, for even a moment- let alone longer- is trickier… (like the “sit and not self-talk” practice .. not “think-in words”… one can try that and think it is working and then realize minutes went by where you “talk in your head” about how you are not talking-in-head and think in your mind about how you are silent…..
……
Thus Standing.. (how annoying and difficult it is to stand and feel- to let-go (and not fall-down) as the grossest-mostobvious lvl of release via the voluntary muscles, to rely on alignments,, and settle-sink with gravity overall.. so first “the whole” feel- and not tune out mind (the second trick is to zone-out and “tough-it-out”.. vs feel and be with)….
~70% (stand say 10min, or less- but 5 or 6 times– with half-hour or so in between.. use the weight-lifting/endurance training method.. but less intense- do a bit, rest, a bit fresh.. do again (while in same session, so still remember the prior “tries”.. by 4th “try” you’ve gotten in the groove… feel the whole and notice tense-holding (ie “extra added drain-effort- ‘strength’)… with this foundation, then you can feel smaller chunks (say head and shoulders overall- not jump around in head-shoulders- left-right.. but feel like the entire top of head like wearing a hat, and release? -if can feel smaller soak into that area… just if feeling too small an area, doesn’t work…
The tendency will be to jump- just for a sec here- back there- over here (and downward- “back up”)- two things: attention jumps around as it is tired- not strength to focus (both to Stay at a pt, also to be able to feel finer there– not feel much- is like fuzzy vision, in too dim-dark a room.. or in fog, eyes want to close or shift, and can’t “relax”. -As develop skill, by doing this, staying at a spot @70%,, rest/pause “before” tire.. and do some more focus-feel.. then you can stick more, and feel deeper…..

[trick is you also are able to sense your shifting of attention more subtly, so it seems steadier, and then seems less steady- as at start you didn’t notice how your mind couldn’t feel, was guessing- disassoc… just like becoming able to sense more of the mismatch, and not feeling the felt-sense until more of a match.. thus key: “sense the Energy Behind/beneath/underlying the ‘blockage’.. not just what you are contacting” (which is more the interface-handle).

I hope this adds some (a partial answer seemed would confuse more unless was a complete-unit, so I how I did some of that).

[Anonymous]

Listening to the CD’s of The Tao of Letting Go, it looks like this is discussed at length in many other words. Focusing is a technique that came out of experiential humanistic psychotherapy. You essentially feel the whole general sense of a problem or situation and let it form while sensing the middle or your body until something more specific comes, then you describe it objectively and sit with it until it shifts. I find it a helpful adjunct to inner dissolving, as sometimes there’s a general felt sense I need to let go before working from my head downwards.

[Anonymous]

Hey David,

I think in your case I’d recommend starting at the top of your head and quickly scanning down the body until you reach the place that you’d like to work on. You don’t have to spend a huge amount of time scanning through the body, it can be 30 seconds. But it’s a good habit to get into, always start the scanning at the top of the head and work your way down.

Hope this helps,
Janak

[Author]

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