The Focusing Attitude
Over many years of studying the introspective processes of people making progress in psychotherapy, we have a pretty good idea of the attitudes that seem to be most productive of insight and emotional relief.
A general description of these productive attitudes is to be empathic to yourself: this means hearing and respecting the concerns and points of view of each part of your feelings, not taking sides, and expecting that more will be revealed if you spend some time with your feelings with these attitudes. One challenge that many people encounter when they begin to learn Focusing Attitudes is an overly dominant inner critic. If you notice something in you that criticizes all the other parts of your feelings, take note of that as one of the parts of your feelings, but don't let its perspective dominate everything else.
Please consider the bullet points below, which summarize productive attitudes for Focusing. Review, and then respond to the questions below.
Focusing Attitudes:
A general description of these productive attitudes is to be empathic to yourself: this means hearing and respecting the concerns and points of view of each part of your feelings, not taking sides, and expecting that more will be revealed if you spend some time with your feelings with these attitudes. One challenge that many people encounter when they begin to learn Focusing Attitudes is an overly dominant inner critic. If you notice something in you that criticizes all the other parts of your feelings, take note of that as one of the parts of your feelings, but don't let its perspective dominate everything else.
Please consider the bullet points below, which summarize productive attitudes for Focusing. Review, and then respond to the questions below.
Focusing Attitudes:
- Respect for your whole person, not dominated by any one part
- Safety/privacy: you decide what to reveal and how fast to go
- Only you really know what you feel and need and what is true for you
- Curiosity about what is in you that is not already clearly known
- Patience for your process to unfold
- Receptivity to what comes from the “felt sense”
- Willingness to listen to anything, without having to take sides or evaluate during Focusing
- Words and ideas can be checked for accuracy against the “felt sense”