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For me the felt sense is usually my heart, sometimes my stomach.
I actually just got done reading that book (Focusing) last week… and just loved it! And I pretty much agree w/ Evan, for the most part that felt sense is going to be in the intuition of the therapist.
-Daniel
Hi Daniel! Isn’t the book a treasure?
It seems to me that the felt sense is something every human being has all the time – its just your body’s perception of absolutely everything that is going on for you. So the client has one (Gendlin called it “the client’s client”) and the therapist has one too which includes what the client is bringing. And in focusing partnerships, the partner often has a felt sense which is something like the one the focusing person has, which is when things get really fascinating for the listener!
I’ve posted a few times on here about the feeling of being stuck creatively, but also of recurring problems that cause anxiety which causes an unpleasant physical feeling for me in the stomach and problems with concentration. I learned the techniques of ‘mindfulness’ on this site and this has helped a lot, but this ‘clearing a space’ seems to make sense in connection with creativity as well as the physical feelings.
For example, recently due to chronic illness and other personal problems I had again allowed my junk mail and necessary home office work ‘go to pot’ and I couldn’t find the motivation to do anything either in the house or creatively. After reading a blog and researching motivation on this site last week (I know, I was probably procrastinating by doing this!), I decided to just take the first few steps to organising things, nothing overbearing, but just to make a start using a short list every day. I did that and this week I’m well on the way to organising it now. The reason I mention this is that I know I should be doing more creative work (it had come to a complete stop), but if I can’t get through the door of my studio, how can I possibly hope to work in it? Additionally, the ‘junk mail’ was sort of filling my mind as well as my home, so that I could not even think about doing anything creative; it became a physical and psychological barrier.
I always have to have the physical things ordered on before I can allow inspiration to flow and the two are definately connected for me. The problem is that I can easily sort my admin out (once I get the motivation!), but quite often my problems get in the way of my creativity as well. I had never considered that I may have to also clear the ‘desk of my mind’ to be able to work again. In fact, if I did that, my problems would not get in the way so much, and perhaps I could even learn to be creative with a pile of junk mail in my studio!
Looking forward to the other 4 steps!
Good luck with clearing the space, Clare! You may even find that once that space is cleared, you are not so dependent on having the physical things cleared before starting work. It certainly happens that way for me. I find focusing fantastic for removing creative blocks – you can just ask “what is between me and doing my work?” and let your body form a sense of all that. And then…. next four steps coming up! But really recommend Gendlin’s book and the resources on http://www.focusing.org.
Forgot to mention that there are videos of Gendlin (and other focusing trainers) explaining focusing on you tube. Gives you maybe a more concrete feel for the process.