Dear Money Adventurer,
Your mind and body had a relationship with money long before you began your conscious money work. Before you began to write your money story with intention, they held it for you, narrating the money lessons and beliefs you’ve inherited and internalized from your family, culture, community, and your own lived experiences of survival, safety, stability, and enoughness.
Because your money story isn’t just an external expression of your current financial circumstances, it is life-long and ever-unfolding, alive in the thoughts and beliefs of your mind and the emotions and physical sensations of how your body responds in the moment.
You feel it in the shock and anxiety of receiving an unexpectedly expensive tax bill, in the joyful sense of empowerment you feel when you finally pay off your student loan or your mortgage, and in the discomfort that sits at the table with you when the subject of money comes up with your sweetie.
From shame, anxiety, anger, fear, guilt, sadness, and the urge to fight, flee, or freeze to the expansiveness of hope, joy, excitement, confidence, and everything in between, learning to understand your money emotions is an essential life and money skill. It is how you uncover your money story, bring healing to the past, and begin to write a new chapter.
This learning journey can feel uncomfortable, even overwhelming. Because, like so many of us never received a financial education, we never received an emotional education either. At this intersection of financial literacy and emotional literacy, your body holds the key to personal understanding, awareness, healing, and growth.
Because when you’re trying to learn practical new money skills and find yourself moving through painful money histories, it can feel like the ground is giving way beneath your feet. You might feel ashamed or afraid, like a child yearning for safety and stability beyond your reach.
But by practicing being present in your body and turning inward to bring awareness and compassion to those old wounds and difficult emotions, you cultivate a sense of personal, internal safety.
This gift of self-regulation, the somatic term for feeling safe in your body no matter what, is one of the hidden treasures waiting to be uncovered in your life and money journey.
Growing up, I learned to self-regulate through dance. I have always been interested in psychology, but when my first foray into talk therapy failed me as a teen, dancing was the one tool I had to work through my emotions and find deeper self-understanding.
My desire to combine these two lifelong loves is why I went to graduate school to earn my Master’s in Somatic Psychology in 1998. In the program, we trained in many different somatic-based therapies and practiced these tools with other students daily. This taught me how to facilitate individual and group work with care and compassion. Also, as a part of my studies, I did a lot of authentic movement training and this helped me learn to live and embody this somatic work in my own life as well.
The hands-on, experiential, body-based training I received over those years of learning and personal growth was life-changing. It helped me step into adulthood, knowing that I had the tools and resources to walk through the deep joys and pains of this life – and that I could use those gifts to empower and support others in their walk of life, too.
Today, I want to share three of my favorite somatic practice with you to help you develop personal awareness and a sense of internal safety that will support and buoy you through the ebbs and flows of life and money.
Press “play” on this episode of the Art of Money podcast to discover:
- My favorite somatic practice for learning to be present with your money emotions
- Simple steps you can take to get grounded and resource yourself in challenging moments
- What “titration” is and how it can help you break difficult situations down into manageable steps
- How to practice these tools to self-regulate and cultivate a sense of internal safety
Tune in to equip yourself with emotional and body-based money wisdom and personal money practices you can take with you everywhere you go. These are some of my favorite somatic practices because they are so simple, so accessible, and yet so empowering.
Listen Here:
Also available on ApplePodcasts & Spotify!
Every time you use these tools, you expand your capacity to root yourself and your money journey in safety and compassion. You nurture the awareness that you can draw strength, safety, and security from within yourself anytime you need it.
And as you continue to practice and nourish that deep inner knowing, you begin to heal and transform your money story, mind, body, emotions, and all.
This is my wish for you.
P.S. Do you need a private financial therapy session with me? I offer a one-time deep dive session for individuals and couples. You can read all about the details and sign up over here.
