Do It for Yourself Now! - Focusing on Sensations

Written by Ilan Shalif, Ph.D.

The sixth step

After the primary focusing you reach a stage when the main work of the natural biofeedback, enhanced by the focusing, is done. This stage can be short - a few seconds. It can also be as long as a few minutes. It depends mainly on the region on which you focus, on the sensation or feeling you are focusing on, on the strength of your concentration of attention, and for sure, it also depends on the supra-programs involved - especially the one which causes the sensation on which you are focusing.

As we described in other chapters, the primary sensation you concentrated on, and those that joined or replaced it, are natural biofeedback. This feedback is the output from processes activated by various ad hoc activation programs of the mind - mainly the emotional type - and it feeds both the processes responsible for the concurrent execution of those ad hoc supra-programs and those responsible for their improvement.

Though most of your supra-programs are quite similar to those of other people, they are unique to you. Therefore, every description we outline in the following paragraphs (and those previously outlined) will not be entirely the same as those you may experience.

Now find the precise place of the previous target of focusing (if it
still exists) or the most suitable sensation that you have now.
Focus on it for about a minute with all the attention you
can recruit for this task. Whether you feel the
pulsation or not - try to sense the minute
changes that happen all the time to
the intensity of the sensation,
its quality and its borders.
After a minute, resume the reading.

If after a short time, the unpleasant feeling has already faded, shift for the remaining time to another sensation or area.

If the original sensation you were focusing on disappeared or changed into another or changed address - don't worry. Even when one laughs in the face of suffering and plays games with it - it still does not go away forever after only one session of focusing. Thus, there is no need to panic. The unpleasant sensation will come back after a short time. (Usually it will return a little bit weaker but in the not too exceptional cases it may even become stronger.)

If after a minute, the unpleasant feeling has not yet changed, try to continue the focusing, in spite of the accumulating doubt, while you read the following paragraphs*. It is important to take into account that this may happen frequently in the first stages of focusing.

*It was found that all the experienced focusers and many beginners can divide their attention to a few concurrent tasks. Usually, they can focus on two or more sensations simultaneously or focus on a sensation, in parallel to any other duty of the daily stream of life.

While doing it, focus concurrently on the felt sense of your choice
From time to time stop the reading for a minute
and focus all your attention on it.

Sometimes, one meets a nasty and stubborn sensation that takes a long time to overcome - especially if psychosomatic problems are involved. This may happen from time-to-time even in the advanced stages of training and to veteran focusers

Sometimes, not only does the unpleasant sensation not decrease its intensity after a few minutes of focusing, but rather increases it.

Sometimes, these sensations can really be nasty and unpleasant even becoming unbearable. In these cases cowardice is a virtue. So don't be a hero. Stop focusing until you get over the bad experience. When the worst happens, it is usually better to take a break of a few hours before continuing the focusing.

The following are a few items of information that can make the sixth step easier, more meaningful, and more efficient:

• If you have started to notice a pulsation at the place you are focusing on, during any of the previous steps or in this one, you can treat it as part of the target of the focusing. The added focusing on the pulsation strengthens the focusing on the place with the unpleasant sensation and weakens the distracters.
• Many times, after a small number of seconds of a joint focusing on the pulsation and the unpleasant feeling, one starts to feel that the target place constricts and dilates like a throbbing balloon (to the rhythm of the pulsation). Usually, that "balloon" inflates gradually till it fuses with the surrounding skin. If at the beginning this is the only sensation there, don't worry, very soon a more interesting sensation will join it.

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• If the quality of the sensation or its place changes after a short focusing, do not stop focusing on it. Just change to the new place or the new sensation. In many focusing sessions, the first sensation encountered is the result of a "covering supra-program"(17) (a "defense") for another supra-program. Sometimes when one focuses on a covering supra-program, it gives way very quickly and after a few seconds, one meets the real trash- program's sensation which was covered by the original one. In cases like this, the focusing is similar to a two-stage missile.
• If you suffer chronically from a lack of unpleasant feelings or sensations to focus on, or those you do have dwindle after a few seconds - do not worry. There are many alternatives to them. As we explained elsewhere, one can always summon a felt sensation or focus on the faint sensations of the facial muscles and the vocal cords. This kind of focusing will cause changes in the ongoing ad hoc activation programs even "without their formal request" submitted as a spontaneous felt sense.