Your Body Knows the Answer
A manual for Mindful Focusing, a new integration of Eastern and Western techniques for accessing your inherent wisdom.
Ever come up against one of those moments when life requires a response—and you feel clueless? We all have. But there’s good news: you have all the wisdom you need to respond to any situation, even the “impossible” ones. It’s a matter of tuning in to your felt sense: that subtle physical sensation that lives somewhere between your conscious and subconscious mind and that can be accessed through Focusing, the well-known method developed by the psychologist Eugene Gendlin. David Rome’s technique of Mindful Focusing unites Gendlin’s method with Buddhist mindfulness practices to provide a wonderfully effective method for accessing your inherent answer to any question—and for responding honestly and creatively to the world around you.
"Eminently readable, engaging, and wise, this book is hugely welcome. Those new to Focusing and the felt sense will be expertly guided; those already familiar with the process will find fresh treasure on every page. Compassionate, warm, and generous in sharing his own journey, Rome is just the person you would want as a companion to opening up your inner world. I know I will be re-reading this book for years and recommending it to all my students and friends." —Ann Weiser Cornell, author of The Power of Focusing and Focusing in Clinical Practice
"David Rome has mastered Focusing, a method for using the body's wisdom to navigate life's major decisions. Your Body Knows the Answer makes this invaluable tool available to us all." —Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and Focus
"Reading David Rome's book opened a forgotten but familiar doorway in my heart that sang, 'yes!' He returns us to our bodies, showing us how to access the felt sense, the nonconceptual experience of embodied knowing we have been yearning for. He skillfully guides us to wholeness, introducing accessible exercises that form a toolkit for life. Mindful Focusing comes at a perfect time, resting at the nexus of mindfulness, neuroscience, and social-emotional learning, showing the way for us to bridge meditation and daily life, the brain and the heart, Western philosophy and Eastern wisdom. This book is a treasure to savor—and use—again and again." —Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown, Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies, Naropa University, and author of Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism