Chapter 5 cont:
The third step - a more intimate acquaintanceship with sensations
Concurrent to the reading of the following paragraphs, imagine
that you are really touching the specific place of the
sensation with your finger or paint brush.
When the actual area of the sensation is bigger than the tip of the finger
or the brush, try gently to demarcate the borders of the area of the sensation
with one of them. If you used your real finger to mark the surface of the place
of the sensation, take it away now. The sensations of contact with the body
might distract you. If you are using the imaginary paint brush - you may leave
it there.
Sometimes the border of the region of the sensation you are focusing on is
blurred. In such a case it is nearly impossible and unimportant to demarcate
the exact borders. So, just try to find, inside the general area of the
sensation, the sub-region where the sensation is the strongest.
Stop paying attention to the various sensations,
and concentrate on reading the following
paragraphs, until the fourth step.
The third step summarizes the chapter about the search for the exact address
of the sensation to be focused on. It has six main purposes:
- To acquaint you with the specific sensation to be focused on, in the fourth
step and in the future.
- To bring about a gradual perfection of the search programs you will use to
find the natural body sensations.
- To contribute to the gradual weakening of the habits and the activation
programs that usually prevent you from long concentration of attention power on
body sensations.
- To improve your acquaintance with the specific sensation so it will be
easier to focus on in the future.
- To enable you to recognize quicker the first changes that will happen to
the sensation in the near future.
- To register a clear and stable picture of your usually felt sense of the
pre-focusing area as a base line - for your private follow up.
The fourth step
This step is dedicated to the work on the felt sensation itself. It is
recommended that you choose for it the sensation(s) you have paid attention to
during the previous steps. If, for any reason, it is no longer existent*, you
can carry out the fourth step on any other sensation that you like, on
condition that it is not of a pure somatic origin, as - for instance, the
pressure of your body on the surface on which you are sitting.
*Frequently, the processes of the brain which are responsible for
entering changes into the ad hoc programs involved with the ongoing sensations
are accelerated by even a scant increase of attention. This happens due to the
intensification of the natural biofeedback arriving from the sensations when
attended to. And thus, after the request for added attention expressed by the
sensation has been fulfilled, the notice is no longer needed.
Now, after finding and getting to know the region of the sensation it
is time to focus on the point where it is the strongest or where it is
most easily paid attention.
Find this point now and in your imagination, put the tip
of your
finger, or the tip of the imaginary paint brush on that
point. Remain in this state a few seconds before
continuing the reading. Let it become for
a short while the central focus
of the body as a whole.
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