**\#️⃣ Tags:** #Psychotherapy #Somatic > **🌱 Planted:** Tue 12 November 2024 --- The way we experience ourselves as human beings is not limited to any singular thought, emotion or sensation. We're much more than that. The Felt Sense is what describes what this 'much more' is through the recognition that we are complex organisms with wholes that are greater than the sum of our parts. > [!quote] [[Eugene Gendlin]], who coined the term, describes it as follows: > “A felt sense is not a mental experience but a physical one. Physical. A bodily awareness of a situation or person or event. An internal aura that encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time—encompasses it and communicates it to you all at once, rather than detail by detail.” [^1] Though the Felt Sense is something that is [[The Felt Sense is always more than words can say|difficult to define with language]], it is the totality of all our experience that encompasses our 'sense' or 'read' during any given moment. It is the mechanism that pulls together all of the inputs we receive as a living organism, both internally and externally, whether consciously aware or not, and blends it all together to form our unique experience[^2]. While the Felt Sense is not a singular thought, image, emotion, feeling or sensation (though it can include all of these and more), it lies deeper than all of this and it can always be referenced in the body. Most people can relate to having experienced moments where they encountered a situation or person, and something immediately felt wrong or off. Maybe there is a bad 'gut feeling'. Whatever it is, it's kinda hard to put your finger on, but you know it is something that is real for you. In this way, the Felt Sense shines light upon our natural instincts, intuition and inner wisdom. --- **➡️ Next:** [[The Felt Sense is always more than words can say]] [^1]: [[Lab/Readwise/Books/Focusing by Eugene Gendlin]]. [^2]: [[Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine|Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine]], p. 67-69.