Chapter 3:

HOW AND WHY TO READ THIS BOOK

This booklet comprises chosen topics from a wider domain - chosen for their essentially, for the explanation of the practical guidelines offered to the reader, or the concrete steps suggested to him. It belongs to the fast growing "Do It Yourself" library. It's main message is "Feel It Yourself" and it is mainly intended for three types of readers:

The first type consists of those who relate to their emotions as a factor which contributes a great deal to their lives. They regard the feelings of the daily life experience of human existence as a blessing that enriches them - and not as a calamity or pathology. This way of relating to emotions is characteristic to most of the Bohemians and other people active in various fields of the arts. Recently, it has become the main mode of relating for wider circles of society.

Lately, the increase in this mode of relating to emotion is overwhelming, and it is prevalent even among very "sane" people. The main contributing factor to this phenomenon is the very fast growth in the number of those who believe that "life should be a valuable experience that is worth living and not a purpose, mission or punishment".

The second kind of person this booklet is meant for is the increasing number of people who are aware (at least partially) that emotions are not only something that happens to them or to others. These people are from the growing sector of the population who are involved with interpersonal relations to a great extent.

Because of their training and occupation they become progressively more aware that their emotions - as well as those of others - are something that they use (and manipulate) for different purposes. Many of these people feel or think that it would suit them to become more sophisticated users.

The third kind of potential readers are those to whom the topics dwelt on in this booklet seem very familiar. This group of potential readers includes all those who have discovered in a vicarious way or by chance or because of ideas they have picked up somewhere... the curious effects of the willful manipulation of the attention paid to the felt sensations of the body.

Many of them have found, by themselves, that the concentration of attention on the common headache - if done persistently - tends to weaken it or even cause it to disappear. Some of them generalized from the headaches to the unpleasant sensations of other parts of the body. A small minority even applied this to the more vague and hard-to-place feelings and moods.

This kind of potential reader also includes all those individuals who are used to being "in touch with themselves". For many different reasons, people get into this habit. Having this trend - intentionally or unintentionally - they are used to `listening' to their physical sensations and thus, to all the felt senses of their feelings, emotions, moods, passions, etc.

So:

• If for one reason or another you wish to improve your understanding of the human emotional system and its functioning, and especially if you wish to improve the functioning and quality of your emotional system - this booklet is meant for you.
• If all you want is only to improve the quality of your ongoing feelings and moods or a certain aspect of your life - this book is for you too.
• This book may also be useful to professionals whose work is involved with the emotional systems of others. We hope they will not misuse it.
• The reader who wants to become acquainted with the emotional domain as a whole, before taking steps to change it, is advised to read first the theoretical chapters.
• The reader who is more interested in the practical side of the new technique is advised to start with chapter five entitled "Do it yourself now", which is a guide for training oneself in the use of the focusing technique.
• Readers who work in the domain of the social sciences, are advised to read the following chapter as a summary of the theory and the concepts of my version of the sensate focusing.
• Readers who are interested in topics that are mentioned but not explained in the booklet in detail, are invited to write us about them (or even to phone). They may get a copy of the preliminary drafts dealing with those topics, which, for one reason or another, were not included in this edition.

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