A felt sense is a phenomena discovered and developed by Eugene Gendlin in the 1970s, named by him as the “Focusing Technique.” This technique refers to the body’s ability to provide a direct connection and understanding of the lived experience of a thought or emotion. It is described as a physical or embodied awareness of a particular feeling or internal condition that is not as readily understood by intellectual thought. It is related to intuition, somatic sensing, and one’s capacity to directly perceive messages from the body. By cultivating a relationship with the felt sense, we can learn a great deal about our inner processes and gain an access point to important wisdom.

See also: feedback loop, possibility space, participatory knowing, distributed cognition, subjective well-being