“Focusing is an elegant way to finding your way into the body” notes the teacher in my latest class: “Focusing and Dream Work: with Dr. Leslie Ellis. Focusing is an approach to both our inner worlds and our dreamwork that helps us connect with images that may be more connected to our souls than the intellectual work of the head. Focusing asks us to create images and connect them with feelings to understand ourselves and our spiritual lives more deeply.
If we are processing trauma, or recognize that part of our journey will be to face and process trauma, it will be helpful to strengthen our inner selves so that we have both images and feelings that we know well and can connect to our spirit. These images and feelings can bolster us for the challenging images and memories that will arise in trauma work.
Dreams can be a fascinating and deeply meaningful way to focus. Using the images in a dream, we can draw our attention to our inner world, finding the conduit to our inner wisdom that is hidden in waking life. We can also use active imagination to find our way to this conduit to our souls, Self and inner wisdom. Sitting with images and being guided to explore them with a companion can be heart opening and provide the spiritual “aha” moments that deepening our living experiences.
