Felt sensing: A mindful inner exploration
Felt sensing is a natural ability that we all have. For many of us, it takes a special kind of attention to find it as we have been over-reliant on explicit cognition.
Sunflower Mind
The phrase Sunflower Mind puts human relationality in a broader context: Relationality is not a unique characteristic of human beings or even animals, but it is a basic function of all life.
The difference is that, in this as in many other areas, our human physical and mental capabilities allow us to extend this function beyond what simpler life forms can do. And we can be mindful of these processes.
The following articles articulate different aspects of this perspective. See also: Sunflower Mind: The embodied & relational edge of Focusing-oriented therapy.
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Sunflower mind: Life as interaction
The following describes the core ideas of the Sunflower Mind model.
Embodiment, trauma & empowerment
The body we are referring to is much more than just the physical body. It is the experience of the body from the inside.
Felt sense & relational implicit process
A felt sense is something that happens really fast, below the radar of awareness. It’s in the same general category as a hunch, an intuition, or a gut feeling.
Implicit relational knowing: Interaction & the emergence of meaning
The phrase implicit relational knowing was first used to describe the way babies know how to watch and respond to their mothers.
Somatic Implicit: Embodied experience & felt sense
We implicitly respond to experience as we live it. These responses can be called self-states. They are a bottom-up, whole-organism response, as opposed to a top-down response
Shared Implicit: The space of interpersonal connection
What happens in the space where interpersonal connection takes place? To the untrained eye, it’s an empty space.
Collective Implicit: The myths that bind us together
Myths are the glue that binds societies together, small tribes as well as countries or supranational entities.
Self & interaction: related ideas
The experience of selfhood is not the entirety of our organism, but an integrated expression of the entire organism acting in its environment.
Implicit relational knowing & clinical skills
While cognition, intelligence, knowledge, and research are mandatory for a surgeon, it takes manual dexterity for surgery to be successful.