Intuitive Focusing

CREATIVE EDGE LISTENING: ACTIVE, EMPATHIC, FOCUSED LISTENING ALLOWS CREATIVITY TO EMERGE

Creativity comes from inside, from articulation of The Creative Edge, the "something-more-than-words" experienced as intuitions, gut instincts, the vague, blurry "feel" of "the whole thing." Creative Edge Listening and Creative Edge Focusing are self-help skills that facilitate exploration of the "not-yet-known. Applications at home and work, alone, for interpersonal conflict and for creative problem solving in organizations.

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INTUITIVE FOCUSING: THE ONE MINUTE PAUSE — REFLECTING, NOT REACTING

Self-reflection, the "pause" before acting or reacting, is a learnable skill. Based upon Gendlin's Focusing (Bantam, 1981, 1984), the PRISMS/S Problem Solving Process, including Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening, teaches basic self-help skills for self-reflection. The kaleidoscope turns, and new ideas and action steps become possible.

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INTUITIVE FOCUSING: FROM INTUITION TO CREATIVITY, TRANSFORMATION, PARADIGM SHIFTS.PHOTOS OF CHILD’S FIRST CHRISTMAS PRESENT ILLUSTRATE CLICK!

Intuitive Focusing, based on Gendlin's Focusing, is a six-step self-help process for going deeper into vague, bodily-felt discomforts, intuitions, gut instincts legitimated by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. When just-right words and images are found for the "bodily-felt sense" of issues and ideas, "Ahah!" experiences, transformation, paradigm shifts follow. George Soros uses something like Intuitive Focusing in deciding when to rearrange his portfolio. Focusing can be used for problem solving at home and at work. A child's first exploration of a Christmas present makes a good visual image of this "going deeper" into the "implicit" information held in the "bodily-felt sense.

Continue ReadingINTUITIVE FOCUSING: FROM INTUITION TO CREATIVITY, TRANSFORMATION, PARADIGM SHIFTS.PHOTOS OF CHILD’S FIRST CHRISTMAS PRESENT ILLUSTRATE CLICK!

INTUITIVE FOCUSING: FROM MUD POTS TO GEISERS AND TECHTONIC SHIFTS PHOTOS YELLOWSTONE CLICK!

Photos of Yellowstone mists, mud pots, steaming cauldrons, geisers are used to illustrate the ever-changing nature of the psyche and the Intuitive Focusing process, a simple self-help skill for "sitting with" this teeming creativity and finding words and images which allow a techtonic shift, an Instant "Ahah!" of insight and creative problem solving. The Creative Edge Focusing Pyramid allows the use of Intuitive Focusing at home and at work, alone, in conflict, for group problem solving.

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INTUITIVE FOCUSING: THE GIFT IN EMOTIONAL DEPRESSION, ECONOMIC RECESSION, AND OTHER TIMES OF “IMPRISONMENT”

Times of emotional depression, economic recession, turbulent social change can also be times for "fishing in the storm." Intuitive Focusing and Focused Listening provide simple self-help tools and empathic support for going deeply inside and "fishing up" new ideas and energies. Examples are given from the lives of those like Gandhi, King, and Mandela, and the creativity of their times in prison

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“WHY CRY?” PART 5: BOOKS AND ARTICLES ON TEARS, CRYING, BEING TOUCHED AND BEING MOVED, INNER CHILD HEALING, ACTIVE GRIEVING, TRANSFORMATION

Many books and articles lead to acceptance of tears as transformative and spiritually meaningful, including Frey, Crying, Gaylin, Feelings: Our Vital Signs, Ross, The Fountain and The Furnace, and Chodrin's The Way of Compassion. Dr. McGuire also lists her own many articles on tears, inner child healing, afect in Experiential Focusing Therapy, "being touched and being moved," and Active Grieving.

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“WHY CRY?” PART 4: CRYING FOR A VISION, OPENING OUR EYES TO TRUTH

David Michael Levin's book, The Opening of Vision, and particularly the Chapter "Crying For A Vision," is discussed as pointing to the importance of crying in allowing us to experience truth, to be touched and moved, to experience care and compassion, to "see" what must be seen and to act accordingly.

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“WHY CRY?” PART TWO: VIDEOS OF MBTI “THINKER” VS. “FEELER”

Comparing a Thinker and a Feeler on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), we see videos of Eugene Gendlin, creator of Focusing, describing theory in a felt-sensing yet Thinking way, compared to video of Kelly Corrigan, being "touched" and "moved" as she describes "Women and Strength. Why are tears associated with moments of transcendence, awe, love?

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INTUITIVE FOCUSING: CAT DOING FOCUSING = “SITTING WITH” THE “INTUITIVE FEEL”

Intuitive Focusing involves noticing that there is "something more than words" inside and making the decision to stop, pause, and spend some time "sitting with" this "intuitive feel" until it is allowed to open and "carry forward" into new actions steps, solutions and ideas. Here, a cat models this "sitting with."

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