April 7, 2016

Practice, the practice of our Focusing skills, has been on my mind this morning. I feel so much how something in me wants to share this understanding with others. It wants to somehow communicate – that glimpse of CONNECTED, ALIVE, FLOWING AMAZINGNESS you touched on in your Guided Focusing Session, or in your Focusing partnership experience, or by dropping in on your own while hiking – that is the tip, just the tip. There is no limit of course, to the unfolding that happens when we are tapped into life forward movement.  We are like the water droplet in the stream flowing, winding this way and that, over rocks, whoa! riding in ecstasy down the waterfall, pausing to chill in deep swim holes at times, maybe evaporating on a rock here and then coming back down as rain up ahead, new adventures unfolding, ourselves continually evolving. Magical places like the Cascades waterfall near my home, give me opportunities to explore this knowing more.

I love standing under this waterfall and then diving with the droplets into the deep cold pool. It’s our Focusing practices of deep listening, being with, the grounded acceptance, trust and compassion of Presence, that create a safe container for me to explore this world more and more expansively.

And, I have to practice these skills. My job gives me numerous opportunities to practice this state of being and I maintain a regular weekly Focusing partnership and I STILL lose Presence many times every day. We all do and I do not have a sense this is changing for humanity anytime soon. It’s not a bad thing. It means I, or we sometimes, have more edges to explore. Those of us who practice Focusing regularly often move from healing our own individual stuckness to holding space for things that feel bigger than us individually, societal issues, like racism, slavery, money, time. This of course, will only unfold this way, if you invite it. One of the most ingenious aspects of the classes I teach, is that we are first and foremost, taught that we have the power to chose what we Focus on.

Empowered Focusers, Relaxed Companions.

There are so many different ways one can continue to work with our Focusing skills. Take a class, treat yourself to Guided Sessions, design your life so you have more time in environments that feel safe for you to practice this state of being, practice regularly with a Focusing partner. There are so many more. Focusing meets you wherever you are.  All the personal inner work we may have done or life experiences that support relational Presence, feed into our process. If you do not have much of that, Focusing still meets you, it just might unfold slower as you exercise neural pathways that have not had much use to this point. The path will be different for each of us. The why not practice is the jewel here. Regardless of where you start, our Focusing skills always move us toward a way of being in our bodies, a way of living our life, that feels fresher, more open, more alive, than if we do not practice this skill.

The yearning in me is that the community of Focusers we create, forms a network of support and inspiration for those who are ready to experience life at this level that feels like the gentle greeting and holding we feel as we watch the ocean waves meet our feet. Each one of us is a valued part of this network. In gratitude for every moment of Presence among us…