Notes from September 17, 2017 NY Metro Focusing Meeting
On September 17, 2017, twenty-two focusers participated in Susan Rudnick’s program “Why Write?”. Susan explained that she had been writing a memoir and had experienced periods of block and struggle. She discovered that Focusing helped her writing process and that writing can be a Focusing process. According to Susan what you have written can be a reflection in the same way that a focusing partner can provide a reflection. Susan led us in an exercise which demonstrated this. We sensed inside what we felt about being in the workshop and found a word or phrase which expressed this. Susan told us to read it back to ourselves and “let it speak to you and sense if there is a next thing which wants to come.”
For the second exercise Susan provided a choice of three prompts: a favorite article of clothing, an unexpected positive surprise, and something you have never done that you would like to do or a place that you have never been to that you would like to go to. She directed us to pick a prompt and sense into the experience, using all of our senses. She said that writing is a body practice and that your pen is an extension of yourself. She told us to keep the pen moving and that it was not necessary to write coherently. We proceeded to write for eight minutes.
After the exercise people shared what came for them:
“The pen was just going and scribbling and then childhood memories came up.”
“I couldn’t think my way through this but writing carried me into it.”
Susan said, “If you experience a block you can start by writing about what you don’t want to write about. Writing is a way of accepting everything that is there, just as we do in Focusing.”
Many participants shared that they would have liked the program to have gone on longer and that they hoped a continuation would be offered in the future.
Prepared by Diana Kirigin and Susan Deisroth
On September 17, 2017, twenty-two focusers participated in Susan Rudnick’s program “Why Write?”. Susan explained that she had been writing a memoir and had experienced periods of block and struggle. She discovered that Focusing helped her writing process and that writing can be a Focusing process. According to Susan what you have written can be a reflection in the same way that a focusing partner can provide a reflection. Susan led us in an exercise which demonstrated this. We sensed inside what we felt about being in the workshop and found a word or phrase which expressed this. Susan told us to read it back to ourselves and “let it speak to you and sense if there is a next thing which wants to come.”
For the second exercise Susan provided a choice of three prompts: a favorite article of clothing, an unexpected positive surprise, and something you have never done that you would like to do or a place that you have never been to that you would like to go to. She directed us to pick a prompt and sense into the experience, using all of our senses. She said that writing is a body practice and that your pen is an extension of yourself. She told us to keep the pen moving and that it was not necessary to write coherently. We proceeded to write for eight minutes.
After the exercise people shared what came for them:
“The pen was just going and scribbling and then childhood memories came up.”
“I couldn’t think my way through this but writing carried me into it.”
Susan said, “If you experience a block you can start by writing about what you don’t want to write about. Writing is a way of accepting everything that is there, just as we do in Focusing.”
Many participants shared that they would have liked the program to have gone on longer and that they hoped a continuation would be offered in the future.
Prepared by Diana Kirigin and Susan Deisroth
