Gendlin on the Body is the Environment

This summary of Gendlin’s A Process Model excerpts gives us a rich entry point into his rethinking of environment, body, and behavior—not as separate entities, but as interwoven processes. Here are some key reflections and syntheses that may help deepen your understanding:

⸻

1. The Body Is the Environment

Rather than seeing the body as something that receives information from an external environment (the typical five-sense model), Gendlin asserts that the body is already in interaction with the environment. His phrase “we’re really plants” underscores this: like a plant inherently shaped by sunlight, soil, and water, the human body is shaped by—and shaping—its world. This is not a metaphor. It’s a literal, ontological statement about being.

This breaks down the dualism between inner and outer. The body doesn’t perceive an environment; it is the situation, and therefore the knowing is bodily, implicit, and arising from the whole context.

⸻

2. Behavior Emerges from Interrupted Carrying-Forward

When the body’s forward movement (a living tissue process) is interrupted—not ended, just paused—it seeks something to restore its forwardness. This pause is what creates the condition for behavior. The behavior is not a reaction to external stimuli but a search to restore the flow. And this “detour” becomes the seedbed of both symbolic thought and language.

This aligns beautifully with Focusing, where you pause with the felt sense—the place where something is not quite formed—and wait for it to unfold the “right next step.”

⸻

3. Implied Meaning and Emergent Language

Gendlin introduces the idea that meaning doesn’t exist in fixed concepts but is implied by a situation-body process. When this is carried forward and articulated, the new words don’t just describe the past—they change what the past was pointing toward. In this way, language is a process of becoming, not labeling.

This redefinition of “implying” is revolutionary: implying is not a static hint, but a bodily tension seeking articulation—seeking its next. The implication exists in the body-environment situation before it finds form.

⸻

4. The Zone of Rightness

This is perhaps the most practical takeaway: there is a “zone” within us that, when attended to (as in Focusing), consistently gives rise to steps that feel right—not always correct or perfect, but attuned. This zone is what makes Focusing both trustworthy and deeply personal.

The contrast to the rest of life—where “any damn thing can happen”—highlights how rare and sacred this rightness is. And it’s only accessed through a kind of inner listening that honors the body as the ground of meaning.

⸻

5. Environment as Co-Carrying Forward

The idea that body and environment carry each other forward is critical. It means that change isn’t just internal or external. When we shift, the environment shifts. And when the environment shifts, we shift. This is structural coupling. It is also the basis of ethical and ecological responsibility: the organism is not separate from the field it inhabits.

⸻