Focus in: Untangle and be free

October 24, 2020

In this meditation path, you use your attention skills to be mindful of thoughts and emotional feelings.

Thoughts and emotional feelings are what we call the subjective experience, as opposed to the objective experience which consists of external impressions of sight, sound and non-emotional body sensations (Focus out).

When you Focus in, you try to get as clear an experience as you can of your thoughts and feelings. This clarity increases drastically when you divide your experience into its individual elements.

These individual elements are:

  1. Mental talk Self-talk, inner monologue or dialogue, hearing the voices of others
  2. Mental images Images you see for your inner eye.
  3. Emotional body sensations All feelings that are emotional, regardless of intensity

Divide and conquer or untangle and be free

Focus in is an incredibly useful technique for working with everything you find uncomfortable. It provides deep insight and is a powerful tool for making changes in everyday life, such as creating new habits and letting go of addictions.

It is also a potent technique for working in the depths of consciousness. Not only can you use Focus in to untangle of your experience in the moment, but with enough sensory clarity, you can go so deep that you can deconstruct the Self.

Insights from Focus in

Focus in reveals several interesting aspects of consciousness.

Here are some of them:

Inner experience can be divided

Thoughts and feelings tend to combine and grow larger than they need to be. New stress is associated with old stress, and all this feeds upon itself.

It can often be experienced as a rather messy affair.

By focusing on individual elements, you will experience at a deep level how the overall weight of the experience is reduced.

When the weight of the experience is reduced, it can also change more easily.

There is only a certain amount of real estate in consciousness

You can only hold a certain amount of sensory impressions in the consciousness at one time.

If you focus all your concentration, clarity and equanimity on individual elements (such as only single images), there will be less room for other elements.

This means that you experience less overwhelm, and you can more easily let go of the other individual elements.

Read more about the limited space in consciousness in this blog post

Vanishings – golden opportunities every micro-second

All sensory experiences end.

We define a vanishing as a sensory experience – no matter how small or large – suddenly disappears or suddenly decreases in intensity.

When you are aware that these experiences vanish an additional definition is created in your sensory clarity, at the same time as the concentration increases.

Noticing disappearances also helps you to be aware of change and small pockets of rest when you experience something unpleasant.

A label you can use when you notice disappearances is GONE.

Suffering = Pain x Resistance

The more equanimity you have, the less resistance you will also have to your experience.

And with less resistance, you do not experience so much suffering from pain and discomfort.

Through acceptance, you become bigger than your problems – you own them; they do not own you.

Read more about using the pain equation in this blog post .

Satisfaction = Pleasure x Equanimity

The more equanimity you have, the less resistance you will also have to your experience.

And with less resistance, joy and pleasure are experienced as more satisfying.

By accepting the moment as it is, you can enjoy the parts of the moment that are good for you.

And by freeing yourself from addictions, you can find true satisfaction.

Practicing Focus in

Basically, you have four focus options in Focus In :

  1. Only mental images
  2. Only mental talk
  3. Only emotional feelings
  4. All at the same time: Mental images + mental talk + emotional feelings

See in: Focus only on mental images

  1. Place your attention just in front of or just behind your eyes, where mental images seem to occur.
  2. If there is a mental image there, note it with no regard of what the meaning of the images is
  3. Use the label SEE IN
  4. If the mental image disappears, use the label GONE.
  5. If there are no mental images there, just enjoy that the mental screen is at rest.
  6. Try to be mindful of the mental screen without having any preference for whether there is an image there or not.
  7. Focus on the specific sensory event for a few seconds (4-6) – or until it disappears on its own.
  8. After a few seconds, note and label again – either the same sensory envetn or another.

Hear in: Focus on only on mental talk

  1. Bring your attention to the area near the ears where verbal thinking seems to come from.
  2. If there are words, phrases, or melodies, note them regardless of their meaning.
  3. Use the label HEAR IN.
  4. If you notice a pause in the inner sound, no matter how small, use the label GONE
  5. If there is no mental talk present, enjoy the silence
  6. Try to be mindful without having any preference for whether there is mental talk there or not.
  7. Focus on the specific sensory event for a few seconds (4-6) – or until it disappears.
  8. After a few seconds, note and label again – either the same sensory event or another.

Feel in: Focus only on emotional feelings

  1. Place your attention to the middle of the body where emotional sensations tend to occur – all the way from the face, via the chest, abdomen and below.
  2. If you are aware of sensations that seem to have emotional flavours, try to be with them and experience only the bodily expression of the feeling. Notice the shape and size of the emotions, how intense they are, what quality they have, and how they come and go.
  3. Try not to be preoccupied with the meaning of the emotional feelings..
  4. Use the label FEEL IN.
  5. If you notice that the emotional feeling vanishes or decreases greatly in intensity, use the label GONE.
  6. If you are not able to detect any emotional feeling in your body, just enjoy the sensation of rest.
  7. Try to be mindful without having a preference for whether there is any emotion there or not, or whether the emotion is positive or negative.
  8. Focus on the specific sensation of the emotional feeling for a few seconds (4-6) – or until it disappears.
  9. After a few seconds, note and label agan – either the same sensation or another.

Focus in: Focus on all subjective sensory experiences

  1. Move your attention between all three areas – image, talk, emotion – at a leisurely pace.
  2. Check in with each place to notice if there is activity or rest there ..
  3. Try to have a clear perception of whether there is activity or rest there
  4. Try not to have a preference for whether there is activity or rest there, or that the activity appears positive or negative
  5. Let it be as it is for a few seconds, before moving on to the next location.
  6. If two or three sensory experiences are present, choose one to focus on. It does not matter which.
  7. Focus on the specific experience for a few seconds (4-6) – or until it disappears.
  8. After a few seconds, note and label agan – either the same sensation or another.

General guidance

Let other things happen in the background just as they are

  • While you are doing Focus in, other things will certainly happen, perhaps quite intensely. That’s okay. Just let it happen in the background of your attention, while the foreground of your attention is occupied on the practice of doing Focus in.
  • If you are drawn into one of these distractions, gently and calmly return to FEEL IN or SEE IN or HEAR IN.
  • Using spoken labels can be helpful.

You can still focus inward even if there is a lot of turmoil

  • Remember that focusing in does not require you to be completely free from all discomfort, stress or unrest.
  • You can have a lot of restlessness in your mind and body and still do the technique absolutely perfect!

Remember that you have choices

  • You can speak or think the labels or note what is happening without using labels, according to what works best for you at a given time.
  • You can zoom in, zoom out, zoom both ways or not intentionally zoom at all, depending on what works best for you at any given time.
  • You can decide to consciously limit what you notice to only one or two areas (e.g. just HEAR IN) or you can choose to move freely between the three areas.

Read more about how to note and label.