Wholebody Focusing Community Gathering

Karen Whalen, who co-created the Heartfelt Conversation process with Kevin
McEvenue, was recently asked in a class, “Is it the Relational Field that we’re grounding
into?” She replied, “Yes.”

The questioner continued: “So, what’s the difference between grounding into the
Relational Field and grounding into the body?” And Karen responded, “Grounding into
the body makes more of you available to the Relational Field.”

This strongly resonates with me. And so I’d like to spend our time together coming more
deeply into the body in order to make MORE of ourselves available to the vast network
of support that is already here, right now, for each one of us, and Focusing from that
place of depth and safety.

And I’d like to do this in a different way than many of us may generally do. We
frequently tend to believe that because we’re aware of our body, we’re actually in our
body. However, if we’re merely aware of our body, we’re often looking at it from the
outside, from the top down.

When this happens, it’s easy to be oblivious that we’re actually not able to fully inhabit
our body from the inside. That’s because, especially as children, when overwhelming
situations evoke deeply painful emotions, our bodies may shut down the area of the
body where we’re experiencing those feelings. And then – serving the purpose of that
shut-down – we may not even notice that there’s something going on inside to be
curious about!

Together, we’ll participate in an intunement that systematically takes us through the
body so we have a chance to become aware of places that don’t seem to be available
to us, as well as noticing places inside that are particularly open and flowing (which can
at times be just as unexpected and surprising!).

We’ll then choose one of our less available areas and begin feeling gently into the outer
edges of it – just as much as feels comfortable. At the same time, we’ll be providing a
context of safety and spaciousness by (1) also grounding into the vast network of
support that holds us, as well as (2) spending lots of time inhabiting a part of ourselves
that feels open and flowing – thereby reinforcing a sense of the body as a safe and
welcoming place.

And all the while, we’ll be remembering that there is nothing that has to happen. This is
at its core an exploratory journey through the body, hoping to know it just a bit more fully
at the end of this session than we did when we began. Simply taking the time to go
more and more deeply into a place inside that already feels open and flowing and safe
to explore may feel just right for now!