I first heard about Eugene Gendlin while reading Peter Levine's Waking the Tiger. Gendlin, a psychologist, originated the term "felt sense," which refers to the awareness of our internal, bodily experiences. Like Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and other somatic pioneers, Gendlin promotes emotional self healing by learning to listen to your body in an accepting way. As Gendlin writes:

"You have a bodily orienting sense. You know who you are and how you came to be in this room, reading this page. To know this you don't need to think. The knowing is physically sensed in your body and can easily be found. But this bodily knowing can extend much more deeply. You can learn how to let a deeper bodily felt sense come in relation to any specific situation. Your body 'knows' the whole of each of your situations--vastly more aspects of it than you can think. Here you find an intricate bodily knowledge and new steps that want to come, and will come if you can wait here.

After you find this deeper level, it takes practice to stay here. In a difficult moment, most people cannot hold on to the body-sense of the situation long enough for steps to come. Focusing can train you to do this."

I really love this compact little book and have read it several times. In it, Gendlin describes the basic principles behind the focusing technique which, as stated on the back cover, "change the way thoughts and emotions are held within the body. Focusing can be done virtually anywhere, at any time, and an entire 'session' can take no longer than ten minutes, but its effects can be felt immediately--in the relief of bodily tension and psychological stress, as well as in dramatic shifts in understanding and insight."

To learn more: https://https://www.amazon.com/Focusing-