The Way is Love

Download to listen later   Ch- ch- ch- ch- Changes. That single word changes, stuttered at us by David Bowie in his hallmark song Changes piped into my ears and hit me, maybe like a lot of other people hit me, me-directly.  I was one of those people, feeling like the world and everything around me was changing and now, someone else was somehow telling it back to me, letting me know that they were feeling it too. Telling everybody what we were all feeling at the same time. I know you all want to hear the song now but I can only play you seven seconds without infringing copyright, so here is a little refresher. Ah.  Well. Changes were happening before that song was released and it was at the university of Chicago where a group of Dr. Gene Genlin’s Psychology students needed a pace to work out some things. They began meeting to discuss the changes going on around them and these early groups, which predate Focusing as a formal practice. A community formed and that community began working with Focusing in group setting.  One of the people who was right there and will describe her experiences is Dr. Kathy McGuire who was a student of Dr. Eugene Genlin at the time. Dr. Kathy McGuire got a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Chicago, working directly with Dr. Eugene Gendlin. She was a Focusing-Oriented Therapist and workshop facilitator for 40 years. Her many articles and manuals can be found at her website for Creative Edge Focusing, www.cefocusing.com. As a cofounder of the original Changes Listening/Focusing Community in 1971, Dr. McGuire sees Empathic Listening and Experiential Focusing as co-equal skills. From her experience, a Changes Community is a training laboratory in how to live in community, how to overcome prejudice and increase tolerance for difference and uniqueness. People can practice, not only Focusing, but interpersonal conflict resolution and group decision making using Listening /Focusing skills. Creative Edge Focusing (TM) www.cefocusing.com [email protected] Buy Kathy's Changes Group Book Kathy's Youtube Channel Free E-course   And for those of you who just have to hear the song, here is a youtube link to a live version performed by David Bowie in 1973. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQ0Ryy01yE[/embed] SUPPORT THE PODCAST WITH A FEW DOLLARS A MONTH LISTEN ON STITCHER SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES LEARN FOCUSING TAKE A LEVEL ONE FOCUSING CLASS LISTEN TO RADICAL GENTLENESS

 

The Focused Kiss. What does it mean?

Ch- ch- ch- ch- Changes.

That single word changes, stuttered at us by David Bowie in his hallmark song Changes piped into my ears and hit me, maybe like a lot of other people hit me, me-directly.  I was one of those people, feeling like the world and everything around me was changing and now, someone else was somehow telling it back to me, letting me know that they were feeling it too.

Telling everybody what we were all feeling at the same time.

I know you all want to hear the song now but I can only play you seven seconds without infringing copyright, so here is a little refresher. Ah.  Well. Changes were happening before that song was released and it was at the university of Chicago where a group of Dr. Gene Genlin’s Psychology students needed a pace to work out some things. They began meeting to discuss the changes going on around them and these early groups, which predate Focusing as a formal practice. A community formed and that community began working with Focusing in group setting.  One of the people who was right there and will describe her experiences is Dr. Kathy McGuire who was a student of Dr. Eugene Genlin at the time.

Dr. Kathy McGuire got a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology

from the University of Chicago, working directly with Dr. Eugene Gendlin. She was a Focusing-Oriented Therapist and workshop facilitator for 40 years. Her many articles and manuals can be found at her website for Creative Edge Focusing, www.cefocusing.com. As a cofounder of the original Changes Listening/Focusing Community in 1971, Dr. McGuire sees Empathic Listening and Experiential Focusing as co-equal skills. From her experience, a Changes Community is a training laboratory in how to live in community, how to overcome prejudice and increase tolerance for difference and uniqueness.

People can practice, not only Focusing,

but interpersonal conflict resolution and group decision making using Listening /Focusing skills.

Want to hear more about Focusing? HELLO. and welcome to the Focusing Way, podcast.  I’m your host, David Battistella. So, What is focusing?  Why is it so great? What got me into focusing? How has it helped me?  These are all the types of questions this podcast aims to peer into and not so much answer, but be with and explore. First, a bit about me. I’m a filmmaker who’s been a part of many creative processes in film. I first got into documentary filmmaking because of the possibility that every film is like continuing education.  I want every film I embark on to be like a new university course and I have used documentary filmmaking to extend my curiosity and to share stories.  Filmmaking has taken me all over the world but focusing helped take me on a journey into myself, a way of better understanding me. So what is this podcast about? It’s a bit like a documentary film that follows new lines of inquiry and discovers new things. Here, I aim to have what I call, “focusing oriented conversations” with people who teach and practice focusing.  And it’s through these conversations that I hope you can learn about all the beautiful things I’ve learned and I continue to learn about focusing. In this podcast episode you will hear about -who I am -what brought me to focusing -what this podcast aims to achieve   LISTEN ON STITCHER SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES LEARN FOCUSING TAKE A LEVEL ONE FOCUSING CLASS LISTEN TO RADICAL GENTLENESS

When I was in my twenties I had a series of profound dreams.  They were the kind of dreams that left you feeling as though you had travelled through millions of miles of fiber-optic cable engaging with every particle in the universe.  As amazing as I felt when I awoke, there was a problem.  I was never able to remember much about the interactions or spaces in the dreams but I always came away with one feeling or one phrase.  This is the phrase: Build a strong body. Each and every night I went to bed knowing I'd be going on this journey.  It was like someone or something was shaking me, pounding this message into my brain. Every morning  I would awake with the message. Build a strong body. What did it mean? Build a strong body. Of course, I had not been involved in Focusing to this point, but strangely I completely understood the message.  It helped me understand that one thing that would carry me throughout this life is my own body.  It had never dawned on me before. It would be with me the whole way, it will serve me.  So, it got me thinking about how to honour the body.  In my thirties and before focusing it was all about exercise, food, and taking care of this vessel. The word vessel is important because it helped me begin to think about my body as a ship for my soul.  My emotions could be in the hull and I was on this timeless journey and adventure.  It became very easy to take care of my ship and along the way, by and large I have tried to build a strong body and this message has stayed with me for twenty years, sometimes stronger than others. Revisiting this idea as a focuser has given me a new kind of outlook on this phrase.  The whole idea is to continue to honour the body. We might have a mind, but it is the body that carries us through life.  It's the only vessel for a journey and it has an amazing wisdom and high tech navigating system.  Focusing is a way into the room on the ship which holds this high tech navigation system. I've come to learn that this exists in me and I believe it exists in other people. For me, focusing has been the way into this space and it has allowed me to navigate this ship (my body) in a way that is more than just a ship in a storm.  Now, I feel I have built a body that is like a ship that can navigate the storm.  A very precious ship.     LISTEN ON STITCHER SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES LEARN FOCUSING TAKE A LEVEL ONE FOCUSING CLASS LISTEN TO RADICAL GENTLENESS

A bit about Focusing Oriented Conversation Focusing oriented conversation came to be with a focusing partner of mine.  There were times when there was just too much, and many things needed to be verbalized or "talked through" in order to get enough space to go beneath the surface and get to what was happening underneath. This can also be known as story. But how do we honour story and let it have it's place in Focusing? We sort of found that by setting aside focusing time, we could use that time to hold space, listen and have respectful conversation.  Focusing language could enter the conversation, or not, but it was an important step in process.  We wanted to bring all the qualities of inner relationship focusing to a conversation. I had found that sometimes early on in the focusing process, a lot of body feeling brings a need to express many ideas that are firing all at once as focusing begins to open up new possibilities and the body begins to communicate now that it is being listened too.  I think it's quite common as you delve further into inner relationship focusing work. So we set aside some time was used as a kind of "conversational interactive focusing" and it was very helpful to both parties. Sometimes, it's nice to just talk in a focusing way, and that is what focusing oriented conversation is.  It wasn't a formal focusing session, but it could sometimes help get over certain humps that arise from time to time.  Then you could get back to your regular focusing and sense freshly into what you are feeling. If it feels and sounds right to you then I could suggest you try it.  It's a work in progress, a discovery into a style of focusing with inner-relationship at it's core. You can even do it one way, while you are in a conversation with someone else. It's a really nice way to cultivate self in presence. It's also a really nice way to introduce focusing to people who are curious about the experience but not quite ready to dive into full blown focusing sessions. Maybe they just want to talk a bit about what is happening with them. Of course this can obviously lead to focusing if it feels right, but it can also act as an intermediate step toward more formal process.   LISTEN ON STITCHER SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES LEARN FOCUSING TAKE A LEVEL ONE FOCUSING CLASS LISTEN TO RADICAL GENTLENESS