What will you experience in a Mindful Life Focus Community gathering?
Meetings are filled with art infused discussions of our lives. Stories abound, and groups range from those filled with laughter and high spirits, to those which touch on heartfelt and poignant life moments.
"What Exactly Is It?"
A frequent question I am asked, is "what IS a Life Focus Community?"
As Polster envisions, a Life Focus Community will enable individuals to meet regularly to focus on the experiences of their lives. At the Mindful Life Focus Community, Meetings will consist of gathering to engage on a specific theme of life each month, such as belonging, creativity, gratitude, heroism, family, or endless others. The group may be joined by a speaker illustrating elements of the theme. Then, listening to music (sometimes live), watching videos, reading poetry or literature, or engaging in other forms of arts exploration related to the theme, the groups will discuss the theme in smaller groups of three or four, and explore in story telling how these themes play in their lives. Utilizing Gestalt methods of amplifying and focusing our awareness, members will experience increased awareness of their lives, and increased connectivity within the community as they share and explore. This creates an unfolding process of increased connectivity to self and others. There is a certain freshness in exploring our lives in this manner, and a unique opportunity to connect with others for a purpose of connection. The community provides a means of focusing attention to the living of our lives, rather than to the day to day often disconnected process of getting through the day, much as a church services serves to shift us a away from mundane process, and into a sense of enriched amplified focus and connectivity.
What it is Not
The Mindful Life Focus Community is not a religious organization. It does not seek
to promote religious, political or personal agendas. It does not discriminate
in it's population diversity. It is open to individuals of all back grounds
beliefs and orientations. It is not psychotherapy, but it can be an adjunct to
therapy, with therapeutic benefits. While psychotherapy is often driven by the
agenda for change, the Life Focus Community does not direct its attention to
this agenda, but rather to the amplification of ordinary life experience.
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a
part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts
and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely,
but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation
and a foundation for inner security." - Albert Einstein
What it is Not
The Mindful Life Focus Community is not a religious organization. It does not seek
to promote religious, political or personal agendas. It does not discriminate
in it's population diversity. It is open to individuals of all back grounds
beliefs and orientations. It is not psychotherapy, but it can be an adjunct to
therapy, with therapeutic benefits. While psychotherapy is often driven by the
agenda for change, the Life Focus Community does not direct its attention to
this agenda, but rather to the amplification of ordinary life experience.
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a
part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts
and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely,
but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation
and a foundation for inner security." - Albert Einstein
Our May Focus Community meeting featured a wonderful visit from Life Focus Community creator and master Gestalt Therapist, Erving Polster. Dr. Polster graciously shared his time and ideas with us as we explored our first theme topic of Belonging.
Caroline Paltin and Erving Polster
Erv graciously shared his ideas and support with Mindful Life Focus Community Facilitator Caroline Paltin in the development of the Community, and will be visiting member from time to time. The concept of Life Focus Communities is the topic of his newest book which will be published some time in 2013. Polster has been conducting process groups and therapy in the field of Gestalt since the early '60s. He is a world- renknowned Gestalt Psychologist, and author of several books on the topics of Gestalt therapy and more recently, Life Focus Communities. He is Professor Emeritus of the UCSD school of Behavioral Medicine, and a long time resident of La Jolla, CA, where he ran the Gestalt Therapy Training Institute, and established himself as a Master Gestalt Psychotherapist. with world wide notoriety and a continued following. He is frequently key note speaker at psychotherapy conferences throughout the world, and was recently honored with a Life Time Acheivement Award for his contributions to the field of Gestalt Psychotherapy by the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT).
Community members enjoy Polster's discussion of Belonging before breaking into small conversation groups.
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Erv noted the distinction between Life Focus and Therapy, and stressed the importance of how we engage in life focus for the the pleasure of it, rather than in pursuit of other goals.
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Caroline expresses gratitude and shares an embrace with Erv at the completion of our day together.