What is Focusing?

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Focusing is a simple, learnable way of paying attention inside.

It helps you notice how your body responds to life — not as problems to fix, but as signals pointing toward what feels more right.

You’ve probably felt it before:
•     A knot in your stomach when something’s off.
•     A warm ease in your chest during a beautiful moment.
 

These signals carry meaning. Focusing is about slowing down and listening to them — gently, without judgment, so they can guide you toward clarity and relief.

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​The Felt Sense

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The felt sense is more than a passing feeling.
It’s a whole‑body sense of something that matters.

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Like the tightness before speaking in a crowded room.
Or the quiet expansion when you see a rainbow after rain.

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Focusing teaches you to stay with these sensations.
When you give them space, they often shift — showing you what’s true and what’s next.

 

How It Works

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Instead of pushing emotions away or being swept up in them, Focusing invites curiosity.

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You learn to:

• Slow down

• Notice what’s there

• Stay present without judgment

• Listen for the meaning beneath the surface

 

This creates room for gentle change — one step at a time.

 

Everyday Uses

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Focusing can weave into daily life.

It supports:

• Emotional resilience

• Intuitive decision-making

• Creative processes

• Relationship clarity

• Spiritual deepening

 

It’s not a technique you “do.”
You can use it in daily rituals — walking, writing, resting — as a way of relating to yourself with more ease and trust.

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A Different Kind of Knowing

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We’re used to relying on thinking.
Focusing reconnects us to a quieter wisdom — the body’s intelligence.

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This kind of knowing is trustworthy, rooted, and deeply attuned.
This embodied knowing helps you live from the inside out, making choices that feel aligned.

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About Eugene Gendlin

Focusing was developed by philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin.
Working with Carl Rogers at the University of Chicago, he discovered that people who could sense into their bodies during therapy made the most lasting changes.

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He called this inner awareness the felt sense.
His book Focusing (1978) made the process accessible to everyone, and his work continues through the International Focusing Institute.
 

His work shows why listening inward matters: the body carries meaning that words alone can’t capture, and when we attend to it, new possibilities emerge.

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References:

• Gendlin, Eugene T. Focusing, Everest House, 1978

• Leijssen, Mia. Manuscript MOOC Existential Wellbeing Counseling, KU Leuven, 2016

• Ann Weiser Cornell. The Power of Focusing, New Harbinger, 1996

• The International Focusing Institute — focusing.org​​