NOTES FROM Sunday Jan 21, 2018
Beth Mahler led 21 participants in a Focusing engagement with the topic of pain.
First, Cynthia Callsen welcomed the group and Larry Hurst introduced Beth. Then Beth Mahler led an attunement that included reading us a “Letter to Pain” that she had written. Hearing the letter was an invitation to us to communicate with pain directly; the letter thanked pain for its energy that is strong enough to move people, including bringing us together that evening.
Following Beth’s invitations and instructions:
We engaged in timed free writing in response to each of the openings “Pain is...,” “Pain brings…” and “Pain holds…”.
We stood (or chose another position), and sought to find a location from pain, connect to it, put our hands there, and let it know we were there to hear and support it. We were to see it as an entryway – a doorway inwards – and to sense, what is its quality?
Sitting again, we drew breath in to the pain and let the breath back out into the world. That was a way of contacting the pain from the inside, while our hands on the place of pain were a contact from the outside.
Gathering into groups of four or five, we sensed a connection with each other while going inward in ourselves. Was there anything hard? Stressful?
Looking back at what we had written in our timed writing exercise earlier, using the non-dominant hand, we circled three phrases and then constructed a single sentence from those excerpts.
Turning our chairs so that each group was like a little train going in a circle, we drew with a colored pencil of our choice on an index card, allowing the scribble or doodle to take shape as the hand wished.
Turning our chairs back towards the center of our small circles, we then each focused with a listener in our group, in turn, for five or six minutes. Possible starting places were: the sentence we had written, which we could read aloud or ask the listener to read; the drawing, which we could look at or show or have the listener show; going back to the original location of pain and sensing how it was now; or anything of our choice.
Bringing our chairs back into the large circle to connect to the whole group, we spent a few minutes sensing for the deeply felt place that has, or may have, no words.
At each juncture, Beth paused to invite us to settle into our bodies and reconnect to ourselves. These skillful reminders contributed to the experiential feeling of the evening.
When we were together in the big circle, those who wished to share their experience were able to do so. One person noted commonalities that emerged in the small groups; others spoke of clarified questions, wishes, or contact with (consciousness of) what was there for them. There was gratitude for the experience.
Cynthia and Naomi Glicken concluded the evening with a brief discussion about the NYMF community and how to respond to it in celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of the organization. NYMF has offered more than 50 events in its history. Titles and notes on these can be see on the archive page of our website, http://www.nymetrofocusing.org/archives-notes-and-info-about-events-we-have-had.html
As the Planning Group organizes the anniversary event, which will be held on March 18 at 5 p.m. at Judson Church (networking and registration at 4:30), everyone is invited to contact us with thoughts and ideas at contact@nymflists.com
Beth Mahler led 21 participants in a Focusing engagement with the topic of pain.
First, Cynthia Callsen welcomed the group and Larry Hurst introduced Beth. Then Beth Mahler led an attunement that included reading us a “Letter to Pain” that she had written. Hearing the letter was an invitation to us to communicate with pain directly; the letter thanked pain for its energy that is strong enough to move people, including bringing us together that evening.
Following Beth’s invitations and instructions:
We engaged in timed free writing in response to each of the openings “Pain is...,” “Pain brings…” and “Pain holds…”.
We stood (or chose another position), and sought to find a location from pain, connect to it, put our hands there, and let it know we were there to hear and support it. We were to see it as an entryway – a doorway inwards – and to sense, what is its quality?
Sitting again, we drew breath in to the pain and let the breath back out into the world. That was a way of contacting the pain from the inside, while our hands on the place of pain were a contact from the outside.
Gathering into groups of four or five, we sensed a connection with each other while going inward in ourselves. Was there anything hard? Stressful?
Looking back at what we had written in our timed writing exercise earlier, using the non-dominant hand, we circled three phrases and then constructed a single sentence from those excerpts.
Turning our chairs so that each group was like a little train going in a circle, we drew with a colored pencil of our choice on an index card, allowing the scribble or doodle to take shape as the hand wished.
Turning our chairs back towards the center of our small circles, we then each focused with a listener in our group, in turn, for five or six minutes. Possible starting places were: the sentence we had written, which we could read aloud or ask the listener to read; the drawing, which we could look at or show or have the listener show; going back to the original location of pain and sensing how it was now; or anything of our choice.
Bringing our chairs back into the large circle to connect to the whole group, we spent a few minutes sensing for the deeply felt place that has, or may have, no words.
At each juncture, Beth paused to invite us to settle into our bodies and reconnect to ourselves. These skillful reminders contributed to the experiential feeling of the evening.
When we were together in the big circle, those who wished to share their experience were able to do so. One person noted commonalities that emerged in the small groups; others spoke of clarified questions, wishes, or contact with (consciousness of) what was there for them. There was gratitude for the experience.
Cynthia and Naomi Glicken concluded the evening with a brief discussion about the NYMF community and how to respond to it in celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of the organization. NYMF has offered more than 50 events in its history. Titles and notes on these can be see on the archive page of our website, http://www.nymetrofocusing.org/archives-notes-and-info-about-events-we-have-had.html
As the Planning Group organizes the anniversary event, which will be held on March 18 at 5 p.m. at Judson Church (networking and registration at 4:30), everyone is invited to contact us with thoughts and ideas at contact@nymflists.com