Taking the time to receive what our ‘felt sense’ brings is an important part of focusing. We are moving forwards, in the direction of fresh air, but it is worth pausing a moment, to receive what has come to us, in a friendly way.

The sea is like a non-living character in my life — a constant yet ever-changing presence, depending on the season. But it wasn’t until I returned to the seaside, having lived away for some years, that I truly appreciated how important it is to me.

Once we have a clear sense of a whole problem there inside our bodies, the time comes to ask it: alright, I hear you, now what is it that you really have to tell me? Where do we go from here?

Although we have five senses with which to explore and experience the world, we can be so overloaded by the flood of visual information coming through our eyes, that we don’t appreciate the audio backdrop of sounds and noises that is ever-present. By tuning in to this other source of information about the world, we can enrich our experience of it.

Finding ‘the right word’ — knowing what it is in the body — makes the difference between the kind of experience we just have to submit to and the kind of experience we can be creative with.

Felt senses are there inside our bodies, carrying intricate, complex information about all of our thoughts and feelings, histories, pre-dispositions, cultures, traumas and loves. But what to do with them?

Sometimes moving forward requires not getting too involved with thoughts and feelings, not trying to understand or express them, but just getting a vague yet complex sense of “all of that”.