Focus In Technique

Keep track of your subjective experience in terms of visual thoughts("Images"), mental conversations("Talk") and emotional body sensations("Feel").

At the psychological level this clear tracking allows you to break negative states into small manageable pieces, thus loosening their power over you. By negative states I mean things like difficult emotions, limiting beliefs, judgments, urges leading to unproductive behaviors and so forth. By manageable pieces I mean individual images, individual self-talk phrases and specific body locations where the emotional sensations are arising. Learning to focus on just one of these at a given moment will reduce your sense of overwhelm. You stop being like a ping pong ball pummeled about by words in your head, emotions in your body and pictures on your mental screen.

At the spiritual level FOCUS IN allows you to become free from the "small self." The small self is the sense that your identity is limited to your mind and body. When you can clearly separate your subjective states into Feel, Image, and Talk, those states will be a home where you can live, but from which you can venture out....venture out into a deeper, broader sense of identity. On the other hand, when Feel, Image and Talk get tangled and meshed, they become a prison that confines your identity. With enough practice, the FOCUS IN technique will allow you to break free from the prison of small self.

The name FOCUS IN comes from the fact that you are turning your attention inward to our thoughts and emotions, monitoring them as tangible sensory events. This technique represents a modern reworking of the early Buddhist "divide and conquer" strategies such as the Five Aggregates or the Four Foundations. In terms of modern neuroscience, it is a way of detecting when your brain's "default attentional network" has become active, pulling you into memory, planning, fantasy and judgment.


The Technique "FOCUS IN"

1. Start by positioning your attention in Subjective Space

Bring some attention to Image Space(in front /behind your eyes) and some attention to Talk Space(in your head/at your ears) and some attention to Feel Space( your body experienced in terms of the presence or absence of emotional-type sensations).

2. Now begin to note the active states.

If all you're aware of is an emotional-type body sensation, note "Feel."

If all you are aware of is a visual mental impression, note "Image."

If all you are aware of is mental talk, note "Talk."

If at any given moment, more than one of these experiences is available just choose one to focus on. It doesn't matter at all which one.

Focus on that Feel, Image or Talk for a few seconds unless it disappears before that.

After those few seconds(or its immediate disappearance) note again , either the same experience or a different one.

3. Let other things be in the background.

As you note Feel, Image, Talk other things (Touch, Sight,Sound) may arise. That's perfectly okay and natural. You don't need to get rid of them. Let them occur but in the background of your attention. Keep yourself lovingly fascinated with the Feel, Image, Talk in the foreground of your attention

You may get pulled away into Touch, Sight, Sound activity. If so , gently return to Feel, Image, Talk as soon as you realize this has happened

4. If nothing seems to be happening in Subjective Space, acknowledge that.

If, for a moment, nothing much seems to be going on in Feel, Image, Talk, note "All Rest" and be aware that your body is emtionally peaceful, your mental screen is blank and your head is quiet all at the same time.

So every few seconds you'll be focusing on one of four things: Feel. Image, Talk or All Rest. Anyone of them is as good as any other. You 're not trying to get any of them to happen. You're not trying to prevent any of them from happening. A certain amount of guessing and groping may be involved in this process. That's perfectly okay.

5. Remember you have options

You can speak or think labels or note without labeling, whatever works for you in a given moment.

You can zoom in, or out or zoom both ways or not intentionally zoom, whatever works for you in a given moment. The zooming can be done in Feel , Image or Talk.

When you note All Rest, zoom out and be simultaneously aware that your body is emotionally peaceful, your mental screen is blank and your head is quiet.

You can intentionally restrict what you note to just...

Image, Talk, Both Rest
Image, Feel, Both Rest
Talk, Feel ,Both Rest
Feel, Peace
Image, Blank
Talk, Quiet


from Shinzen Young 2008