Power of Focusing

This is a wonderfully clear and simple and reassuring guide to learning to pay attention to subtle hints from your body about what is going on in your life. The underlying idea behind the procedure Ann teaches is that we are not contraptions in which a mind and spirit are just tucked into a body like a pillow into a pillow case. Rather we are a unitary bodymind and whatever subtle or not so subtle senses are going on in our bodies--at least those that are not too closely related to disease or to what we just ate--probably have something to tell us about what we haven't noticed yet about our lives. So we need to listen to our bodies, much as we would listen to another person we really wanted to understand. I read the book some years ago and I still return to it regularly for inspiration to help myself get back into the groove that it facilitates. Maybe as children we all started out doing this kind of attending to our "bodyminds", but now that we "know" a lot of stuff, we may tend to talk ourselves out of what our bodies know--and thereby hamper ourselves. Getting into Focusing can get us back to much of the wisdom of childhood, with adult wisdom added. Ann learned this art from Eugene Gendlin, author of "Focusing," who taught at the University of Chicago, though she has her own slant on some aspects of it. If only Ann and Eugene had taken some courses in marketing, Focusing might be as big now as TM was once upon a time, and then maybe the world would be a lot better place. In any event, if you read this book, I bet you will think that its ridiculous sales rank of 15,911 shows that Oprah's help is needed to get a lot of people in on something that could help us all live better. Instead of having Oprah's Dr. Phil tell you what's what, Focusing empowers you to tune into your body's messages to find out what's what for yourself. This is the best kind of self-empowerment I can think of.

As far as I can tell, this is a hardback version of The Power of Focusing, the paperback bestseller. There is no better introduction to this simple yet profound method for accesssing the body's wisdom, than this small book. As a linguist, Ann Weiser Cornell has been able to pinpoint ways of expressing these subtle concepts that really communicate the essence of focusing. As a woman and as a long-time practitioner who has been involved in the development of how to teach these concepts, she has touched upon the common threads in all our experience of what is real within and how we keep ourselves away from that place. Highly recommended.

What I like most about The Power of Focusing, which I have reaad and re-read, is the author's observation that the essence of Focusing is your relationship with yourself. That is, living the Focusing attitudes by being gentle and compassionate with yourself. This is a perfect fit with my experience, both personal and professional (I am a psychologist). Living in the present moment with kindness and acceptance is perhaps the greatest benefit that I, and consequently those around me, have derived from Focusing. It is most helpful to share Focusing by having a recent book which contains the fruits of over 15 years of the author's teaching. The first Focusing self-help book, the classic by Eugene Gendlin, anchors the practice - it has a history. Now when I pass Focusing on, I can add Ann Cornell's book as an example of the living tradition of Focusing, one of the ways it has developed since Gendlin's book was published in 1981. It is an excellent illustration that while there are Focusing basics, such as the attitude of respect, there is always something new to learn and more applications in using the process. For instance, I am a certified Focusing teacher, but one of my new learnings from this book was a clearer concept of what "guiding" is. Addtionally, Ann Cornell's examples are very good illustrations of the concepts she is teaching. One of my favorites is "Matt," because it shows how Focusing can combine in a useful way with other factors when one is making a major decision.Finally, from a marketing standpoint the book is very attractive and has great endorsements on the cover. I hope there is a 100th printing!