Learn to Be Your Own Best Friend

BE your own best friend...

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BE your own best friend...

Most of us are not taught HOW to use our body/brain. Focusing is a way of living confidently connected to your own inner knowing in relationship to yourself and others. We can continue to look outside of ourselves for answers or we can show up as our own self-mentor. When we do this, our body naturally rewires behavioral, emotional and thought patterns that are no longer serving our well-being.

Just as our heart and our lung have jobs they do for us, there are infinite aspects of self potentially asking you to be seen and acknowledged. We are the space for all of this to belong and feel safe to be the way it is. Repetitive thoughts or emotions, addictive or stuck behavioral patterns, anxiety, health issues and spiritual angst are all signs that our body is seeking our attention.

Focusing reminds us that wanting to be seen is normal. Once we begin being our own best friend, holding space to listen within, we won't ever stop. No matter where we are in life, there are more layers potentially emerging. We could reference Rumi here, and imagine that each is sent as a guide from beyond. Life thrives on quality relationships and our body is our best teacher at what that means for us now.

Learning to BE our own best friend gives us the power to create the world within us that we would like to experience around us. A world with qualities like patience, kindness, courage, and authenticity.

Where are you now? What is it you want to create with your life?

Try a Session

A thank you note from Laura Albrecht, USA: "Learning focusing has truly unlocked a part of me that was in deep hiding prior to focusing - words fail to express just how impactful your focusing approach and program has been for me and continues to be a beautiful & positive impact in my everyday dealings.
Thank you so very much for teaching me the baby steps in creating space for one’s self & the many parts involved.
Focusing has given me the grasp on real presence & I am so grateful to have discovered you and the community you have created."

Be Your Own Best Friend Series

Be Your Own Best Friend Series

$105.00

Shipping calculated at checkout.

This course series is centered around exploring and improving your relationship with yourself from wherever it is now toward becoming your own best friend. 

Classes will include time for sensing within yourself, mindfulness exercises to adapt into your daily life, opportunities to become more familiar with how to navigate your inner landscape, Presence language exercises, writing, art and body awareness/movement activities and a few Demonstrations of Focusing-in-action. There will be some reading and handouts provided by email. We will not be partnering with others in the class here, only working individually. Focusing experience is not required, although it will certainly add to what you get from this class. You will be able to go deeper on the themes offered here if you already have experience.

Hello Criticism...

Judgement from a multitude of directions is in our face daily. It's getting harder to ignore. This feels like a ripe time to pause and explore the subtleties of how we process outer/inner criticism. 

Criticism and Judgements can be tough to understand and develop trusting relationships with. The Be Your Own Best Friend series consists of five weekly 1.5 hr sessions. 

We'll show up with clarity and gentleness to create a more coherent inner team spirit and resilience with the world around us.

 

Be Your Own Best Friend with Criticism - One Offering

Five Tuesdays 7 - 8:30pm Eastern New York Time or your equivalent

Feb 3, Feb 10, Feb 17, March 3, March 10

 

Be Your Own Best Friend with Self-Care - Two Offerings

Five Tuesdays 7 - 8:30pm Eastern New York Time or your equivalent

March 17, March 31, April 7, April 14, April 21

Five Wednesdays 12 - 1:30pm Eastern New York Time or your equivalent

March 18, March 25, April 1, April 8, April 15

It's true that we can be free...

“When we say that we are free, and it’s true that we can be, this means that how we behave is determined by what happens within us, within the brain, and not by external factors. To be free doesn’t mean that our behavior is not determined by the laws of nature. It means that it is determined by the laws of nature acting in our brains.” ~Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Certify to Share Focusing with others

Become Certified with The International Focusing Institute to guide or teach others.

Sandy's Course Goals

As a Focusing Coordinator, I enjoy working with individuals and teaching groups. I offer introductory talks and classes, year-long basic skills training and an ongoing Learning Community for Mastery in Guiding Change. This ongoing community is for advanced Focusers who support others in change processes. It also can be a path to certification for you as a Focusing Professional with The International Focusing Institute.

I have at least three goals in teaching:

1- Self-empowerment in your daily life by incorporating the power of the pause into your natural way of being. In slowing down how we live, we access more of our capabilities as a human being, with numerous mental and physical longterm health benefits.

2- We are here to connect and grow. Inner Relationship Focusing training is ingenious in that we unlearn social-emotional patterns that do not work first in order to build healthier authentic relationships with ourselves and others. The benefits of a regular partnership practice develop here.

3- Understanding Gendlin's concept of crossing. I personally crossed Focusing with emerging neuroscience in developing Smartview Stories as a way to bring Focusing into schools and other educational settings. The Learning Community is intentionally designed to encourage all of us to cross Focusing concepts with other life experiences we have and then, bring what we learn to share with others in the community. We are all valued here.

I also weave passions for families, local community, health, well-being and spirituality into what I do here. I work mostly from home and enjoy a simple life, with garden time galore, pet play, and nature walks. Visit my About Sandy page for more about my personal journey.

Being You

Josh and Sandy explore the basics of Focusing here with a very cool demo session. There are great timestamps outlining valuable aspects of how our perception changes when we experience ourselves as 'living process' from Gendlin's philosophical understanding.

Endorsements and a Quote From Gene...

Ann Weiser Cornell, Co-Founder of Inner Relationship Focusing

“I am so proud of the way that Sandy Jahmi Burg has deeply absorbed my teaching of Inner Relationship Focusing and made it into something dynamic and empowering to support her whole community. Sandy is warm, creative, and visionary, a person who blends the grounded and practical with the big view of possibility. She is one of the most active Focusing teachers and the Floyd community is extremely lucky to have her!”

Eugene Gendlin, Philosopher who named Focusing

“What is split off, not felt, remains the same. When it is felt, it changes. Most people don’t know this! They think that by not permitting the feeling of their negative ways they make themselves good. On the contrary, that keeps these negatives static, the same from year to year. A few moments of feeling it in your body allows it to change."

Gendlin, (1986, Pg. 178), Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams

Cathy Pascal, LCSW & Focusing Coordinator

"Sandy loves sharing the gift of Focusing and it shows! She sparkles with passion and commitment for the work and embodies a deep confidence and understanding of the process. She also gets things done – with large doses of creativity and courage. It has been a pleasure to mentor and work alongside Sandy as well as cheer her on as she continues to cultivate and support a Focusing community. I recommend her highly as a teacher and a Focusing guide."

Transform Your Life, Learn Focusing, Welcome the Way We Grow