I was driving to the community theater for a rehearsal when I noticed a heavy feeling in my gut. I took a couple of breaths to relax myself, then I focused my attention on the felt-sense in my body. I knew it was telling me something, so I paused after parking. I sat with the sensation with intentional compassion. The reason for the heavy feeling became apparent: anxiety about an upcoming conversation. I allowed myself to be present with the feeling, acknowledging that anxiety is a natural response. In a few moments the tension dissipated, and I went on with my day.
I would not have paused for this process, nor even noticed the sensation in my body, had I not been introduced to the practice of bio-spiritual focusing. Once a week I connect with a partner online to companion one another in a specific process to isolate and be present with sensations that are carried in our bodies, like the anxiety I felt during that casual drive to the theater.
Anxiety is in the air. I have led online discussions to help folks develop inner peace and resilience during the current US administration. I am finding a gap in so many books and articles about spiritual life, particularly in response to suffering or anxiety. Authors recognize the importance of inner work so that one’s calling such as justice work will be informed by a solid center, a spiritual grounding unhindered by psychological barriers. But few explain how to do it effectively, in my opinion.
Many authors and speakers promote methods of dealing with negative emotions that are about ignoring them, replacing them with “religious” thoughts, a variety of efforts to push them away or dismiss them. The trouble is, the feelings won’t go away. Inevitably they reemerge as anger, violence, fraught relationships, even addiction.
Often we are encouraged to talk about what is troubling us, believing that exposing the anxieties to the light will remove their power. That can happen to a point, but anxieties persist. Trying to process them primarily through thinking often falls short of alleviating the tension.
Through his extensive clinical therapeutic experience, Eugene Gendlin, Ph.D. stumbled onto a method that led him to develop the “focusing” approach. This takes in the person’s global experience, especially the sensations within the body. Every emotion and event is felt within the body, but in our culture we have been taught to ignore that aspect of our experience.
Mental analysis of what is troubling us disregards how the body is carrying it. By noticing the felt sense in the body of the anxiety or other sensations, we respect the capabilities that are wired into us to be present with with reality. Quieting the mind and body enables us to get a sense of what is happening inside. Focusing has us sitting with it compassionately, not trying to solve it or expect anything from it. This compassionate attention often allows a felt shift to emerge that is experienced in the body.
Edwin M. McMahon, Ph. D. and Peter A Campbell, Ph.D. have written and taught extensively on what they dubbed “bio-spiritual focusing,” (BSF) building on the work of Gendlin. They identify the connections between psychological healing and spiritual (Christian) transformation.1 They write, “[Bio-spirituality] is enabling people to let go into the truth of themselves, especially their brokenness, in order that they may bodily experience grace within the process of their growth into wholeness.”
Ultimately BSF is a very simple process of quieting oneself, going inward and noticing anything that keeps you from feeling fine, identifying what needs your attention the most, offering your compassionate presence for a while, and recognizing whether you feel differently afterward. It is more effective with a partner, but it can be done alone, any time. It gets easier with practice. BSF is especially useful to children as they learn to honor their bodies and sensations instead of stuffing their emotions due to pressure from adults.
Having practiced BSF regularly for a couple of years, I can attest to its effectiveness. I would even call it revolutionary, for it challenges the mental/analytical perspective that prevails in Western culture and religion. It heals from the inside out. I often sense the presence and movement of God internally while focusing. Like many intimate, interior experiences, it defies explanations or formulae. Healing becomes possible. Regardless of what healing or hidden divine work I consciously detect, I am honoring my whole self in the moment.
Another example. I was anxious about the condition of my sister who required surgery, antibiotics, and treatment for a dangerous condition. I went through the process of focusing with my BSF partner, and this was my journal entry afterward:
“The image of being with her at the nursing home (180 miles away at the time) was enveloped by divine compassion and love. Her favorite coral color overlaid the image and permeated our togetherness, holding us as one. It bathed us interiorly, nurturing and embracing us.
“As I sat with that oneness and embrace with [her], I sensed that the beauty and color and softness (of her skin!) of our recent times together are not gone. They are part of me and of her. And she is being embraced now even as she sleeps, whether she is cognizant or not, by that Love that holds us—both her and me, and all of us—together. She may be slipping away, either temporarily or for the temporary absence from us, but she is not gone now or ever. She is part of me that will never leave. And I am part of her. This is the nature of love. Of Love.”
It is natural to wish that bad feelings will go away. But ignoring them or trying to force good feelings never relieves us of underlying anxiety. I have learned that while being present to the knot in my stomach, I may find myself asking what it wants to tell me. An answer may or may not come immediately. Or, after gently holding the hot sensation in my head, I could recognize connections with what I am experiencing in my life. The critical question is, can I sit with what is keeping me from feeling fine, with a caring, feeling presence?
This may be challenging territory for some people. Bad memories and old voices lurk in the interior space. But with the help of a spiritual director, a BSF partner, or a therapist familiar with this or similar approaches, people can realize their potential for healing and growth by using it along with other practices and tools.
As McMahon and Campbell put it, “Anyone who regularly perseveres in [BSF] will find that it provides a concrete structure, the practical disposing and psychological climate which allow God’s grace to make you whole enough so you can love as God loves within the gifted process of growing more congruent and whole inside yourself…The inner landscape changes. Living the truth always frees.”
For more information, go to the Biospiritual Institute at www.biospiritual.org.
1 This is not limited to the Christian tradition. That is simply the paradigm referred to in the book by McMahon and Campbell’s book Rediscovering the Lost Body-Connection Within Christian Spirituality.
