Connecting to the "Felt Sense"
“Ants View” by EladeManu is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Have you ever struggled to understand the nature of a problem in your life, only to have an a-ha moment arise unexpectedly when you were thinking about something else entirely? This type of experience begins to allude to the wisdom that exists within all of us beyond the thoughts, stories, and ideas of our thinking minds.
Our bodies hold a pool of knowledge far beyond what’s available in our conscious thoughts, and we can access the body’s knowledge through our “felt sense.” The felt sense is the holistic feeling of a situation or experience – encompassing everything you feel and know about the situation. It doesn’t show up as words or thoughts, and rather arises as a singular (often vague or fuzzy) bodily feeling.
Here's an example: Imagine you have just boarded an airplane, and you can’t shake the feeling that you’ve forgotten something. You run through your mental checklist in your head, and everything seems taken care of, and yet the feeling persists. Then, hours later you realize you forgot to pack a gift you’ve purchased for the friend you’re visiting.
This example illustrates the felt sense, and in it the body and felt sense had the knowledge that something was forgotten hours before the mind realized. Just as the felt sense can point us to the remembrance of something forgotten, it can also lead us to the body’s deeper knowledge and healing.
“Experiential Focusing” is a technique developed by Eugene Gendlin, PhD that teaches us how to do just that. Gendlin provides six steps to learn Focusing. These steps are just an introduction, and there are many different styles and techniques to Focusing. My suggestion is to use any/all of these steps only to the extent that they feel helpful. If you approach your inner world with an open mind and heart, the right process for you will unfold in time. It may also be easier to begin with the first 1-2 steps and practice those before moving on.
1. Clear a Space
Sit silently and gently invite yourself to relax. Turn your attention to your inward experience (don’t worry if it feels blank). You could rest your attention on your stomach or chest as a starting point. Then, ask yourself, “How is my life going right now?” As answers slowly come, notice any impulse to jump inside the concerns or up into your mind. Keep a little space between your attention and the answers if you can. Ask yourself what else you are feeling, and wait for answers again. There will often be several things that arise.
2. Felt Sense
Choose one thing that came up in the first step to focus on – again, try not to go inside it. Keep your attention wherever you can feel things in your body (e.g. in the chest or belly), and see if you can get a sense for what the problem feels like as a whole. It will likely feel very unclear or fuzzy, that’s ok.
3. Handle
As you feel this unclear sense, ask yourself what its quality is. Let any word (e.g. “tight”), phrase, or image (e.g. floating down a river) come up from the felt sense itself. Keep your attention with its quality until something fits just right. You may try several words or images before something sticks.
4. Resonating
Go back and forth between the felt sense itself and the quality. Check in to see how they connect with each other. You might notice one or the other shift slightly as you move back and forth. Continue to shuttle your attention until they feel just right.
5. Asking
Now ask, “What is in this sense that makes it so [insert word/phrase/image from step 4]? Keep feeling the quality as you ask the question, rather than just remembering it. If a quick answer arises and the felt sense stays the same, let that answer go. Find the sense again and ask again. Be with the sense until an answer arises that comes with some sort of slight shift, give, or release.
6. Receiving
As you experience the shift, receive whatever it comes with. Try to welcome it with friendliness and stay with it, even if it was only a very subtle change.
If you try these steps and get stuck somewhere, lose the “felt sense,” or never connect to a felt sense to begin with, it’s okay and your experience is welcome. Let this be your gentle reminder that there is nothing to “get right,” and that learning takes time and practice.
References
Gendlin, E. T. (2007). Focusing. Bantam.
Weiser Cornell, A. (2021). What is focusing. International Focusing Institute. Retrieved June 20, 2022, from https://focusing.org/felt-sense/what-focusing