The Radical Acceptance of Everything: Living a Focusing Life

I am a Focusing Practitioner and Trainer. I recommend this book to all people who are interested in Focusing. It is simply and clearly written and avoids jargon. It is very up to date. I found it interesting that Ann Weiser Cornell challenges some of the old beliefs about Focusing and opens up the process to include everything - as it says in the title. I found that, not only did it change my ideas about Focusing, but it also changed my whole outlook on life.

Thought provoking.

Libro arrivato in tempistiche brevi considerando non è scritto in italiano. Soddisfatta.

There are three good books that help you start Focusing: Gene Gendlin's Focusing (with a new introduction in the past few years), Ed McMahon & Peter Campbell's BioSpirituality: Focusing As a Way to Grow (get the 1997 2nd ed.), and Ann's own The Power of Focusing: A Practical Guide to Emotional Self-Healing . All three have strong merits; all three are excellent & somewhat different fine ways to start Focusing. Once you've started Focusing & know "The Big Three", however, "The Radical Acceptance of Everything" is THE best "next step" for taking your Focusing to another level. As in all of Ann's work, it has marvellous specific & do-able suggestions in, for example, working with a Focusing partner, handling conflicting felt senses, how to be with a reluctant felt sense, Focusing on physical illnesses, Focusing with truly overwhelming felt senses and many more areas that all Focusers face. She combines this with often moving & memorable stories from her own life & from her experiences with Focusing. Throughout the book, Ann's craft as a writer and her skill from training more Focusers, literally, than any one else in the world is quite evident. Background: I started Focusing by myself when Gene's book came out in 1981. I went to my first Focusing workshop with Gene in 1983, where I also met Ann, and attended her first Focusing Guidng workshop. I became a Gene Focusing trainer in 1984. In 1984, I also attended my first workshop with Ed & Pete, becoming a trainer in their workshops. For almost 25 years, I've been a writer and on the editorial board of Ann's Focusing newsletter, "The Focusing Connection" -- an absolute must for keeping track of new Focusing doings & ideas. For 20 years, I've been a psychotherapist, teaching & using Focusing regularly in my practice, where I specialize in often very complex clients. I've presented at a few Focusing International Conferences.... You get the idea. I mean it when I say that if you already know how to Focus, in "The Radical Acceptance of Everything", you'll find at least several specific ideas/approaches -- probably more -- to help you Focus even better. Of this, I'm confident. I did, and I've been Focusing for a very long time with a lot of very different people. I eagerly await Ann's next book.

Who ever is interested in focusing this is the ultimate book for beginner students written by the core teachers Ann Weiser and Barbara McGavin. It gives you all the informations you need to get the tools for starting and understanding what focusing is about. If I could I would tick 10 points....

Ann Weiser Cornell brilliantly updates Eugene Gendlin's Focusing. It is very rare that any psychology book is useful or practical. "The Radical Acceptance of Everything" is an exception to that rule. I am a Zen practitioner. I find that Weiser Cornell provides insights that reinforce the process of zazen. For example, many Zen students try to stop thoughts. But what if there are insights contained in those thoughts that our mind is trying to tell us? So perhaps if we listen to those thoughts, we may learn something. Weiser Cornell doesn't mention Zen once in the book. And I like that because her book is an independent confirmation of certain zazen principles plus much more. It is amazing when two independent streams of thought or methodologies come together and reinforce each other. Personally, after reading "The Radical Acceptance of Everything" I am going to set aside separate blocks of time to practice focusing, and other blocks of time for zazen; or possibly a combination of the two. I find this is a very important book. If you find yourself stuck in your zazen practice, this book might be just what you need.

This book is a great resource for anyone doing inner work. It shows ways that we can integrate parts of ourselves that we have had to keep at bay or that might even threaten us. It is a fairly easy read. This is my second copy as I am often lending the first to others.