Being Present in Your Body with Your Money

This week, The Pledgettes hosted a workshop with Dava Stovern of Somatic Money about how to be more present in our bodies with our money. The workshop was incredible.

We didn’t post the replay in the Webinars-On-Demand for the community, because we spent the hour with Dana in deep conversations about specific money issues, where they were sitting in our bodies, and specific exercises we could do to work through them.

Dana took the time to ask questions and listen to each brave individual on the call as we talked through everything from past money traumas to current money blocks.

Since we didn’t want to post the replay (and thus post the deep dives we each took into our money blocks . . . everyone was so open to chat!) – I thought I’d write about the experience here.

I’ve always been a person who sets a lot of goals with my money. I’ve felt comfortable talking about money, telling others my goals and have always been the first advocate for salary transparency and open / honest conversations.

But even though I’ve spent so much time talking about money – I’ve never paid attention to where I felt that conversation in my body. Let me back up . . .

Dana’s work is all about understanding the embodied emotions we feel while we are thinking about money or working through things with money. As she says on her website:

Our minds of logic are connected to the feeling centers in our brains. This logic-emotion experience of money regularly washes over into our bodies where financial emotion is somatically dynamic.

– SOMATICMONEY.COM

Interesting right?

As Dana describes it, “When you experience a money thought in your mind, that thought can trigger an emotional and/or energetic wave through your body. If the money issue, money fear or money frustration that you’re thinking about is strong enough, the emotional and energy responses can be powerful.”

And this is what we worked through with Dana – in real time.ˆ

She asked us to think about a block or conflict with have with money. To write it down and hold it in our minds.

Next – she asked us to understand where we felt that in our bodies.

At first – I thought I would just listen, but that I wouldn’t have that experience. But I could absolutely feel it when I thought about where it was hitting – right in my stomach, like a heavy little weight. Other women said they felt it in their chests, their throats . . . it was so interesting.

Dana had us focus on that feeling and ask ourselves if we could sit with it, work through it until it passed.

It was incredible. And Dana left us with very clear directions to practice this on our own! Check it out:

The Practice

1 – Write down a money fear, challenge, or focus.

2 – Get out of your head by…
– identify the money focus
– stop/slow down
– tune into your breathing
– feel your money focus in your core (and not your head)

3 – Notice how your body feels in this meditation.

4 – Identify the Trigger: Fight, Flight, or Freeze.

Tips about the Practice

1 – Be gentle with yourself and take your time. Doing smaller meditations more regularly works great. And if you are feeling overwhelmed by it, take a break.

2 – When working with your trigger, get out of the “what if’s.” Are you bigger or smaller than the issue? Triggers make us small and meditate on this will get us bigger than the issue. 

3 – Identify how our past experiences (money-related or otherwise) show up in our money relationship.  Whether it’s PTSD, how we protect ourselves, or the habits previous generations have held. 

This was a fascinating event with Dana. If you missed it but want some real time coaching with Dana, consider applying to be a guest on her podcast. Also, pick up a copy of her book in The Pledgettes Members Recommend Bookshop! And you can also checkout her website, somaticmoney.com

Want to join future events with The Pledgettes?

Well you’re in luck! We host at least two virtual each month for our members!

And when you join – you get access to dozens of past webinars covering everything from Stock Options to Trust & Estate Planning.

Check it out – we’ve got memberships at several tier options! We’d love to see you there.