[Any student wanting reading material on this, check out an article by John Bernard Harris from the Manchester Gestalt Centre at:
http://www.123webpages.co.uk/user/i...er=mgc&pn=10707

Hello Brian,

My response to SILENCE is that being silent is a great way to come to terms with what is going on inside yourself. Most people seem to have a 'busyness' thing which extends right into their leisure time. The TV or radio is on 'for company' so I'm often told. Now the family have left home & my wife is often at my daughter's place minding the grand child I seldom have anything on in the background.

I used to offer to 'concentration & relaxation' workshops at the end of term to students who wanted an alternative to sporting activities or watching a movie. I would explain how to 'look at the wall' & then give students about 10 minutes to try. Then I'd reform the group & ask the students what they had discovered without putting any interpretation on anything except perhaps to say, "that's interesting."

Then we'd 'look at the wall' again. Some students chose to lie on the floor & look at the ceiling. Some chose to close their eyes. Some chose to have their eyes half open. Some chose to close their eyes for a while & open them for a while & close them again. Some students stood a faced the wall, some sat on chairs, some sat cross legged.

I had feedback from students at the time & since that the learning the skill of 'looking at the wall' was beneficial for them. That they are still doing that. That being able to fix attention like that has been an important way of managing their lives.

I sometimes give Hypnotherapy clients instruction on 'looking at the wall' for a few minutes & suggest that they do some every day as homework. As I've mentioned elsewhere on one of the forums I ask two questions while people hold focus.... "what are you thinking now?" ... "what are you feeling now?"

I am not expecting answers. Often there is no response because people are completely involved in holding focus & that occupies all their attention.