Hello my friend,

I am standing, I wish in awe, but more like the muddy middle, watching yet another dust bowl of fear roll to all corners of the earth.

I’m talking about our collective response to Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence is not unknown and new, but its speedy development is. The rapid growth of technology spins our heads, as changes arrive too quickly for our brain and body to digest.

With these fast advances, I see fear manifesting among us as two polarities.

Conviction and Control say: Yes, this is good! 

Worry and Doom say: No, this is bad!

(Both are right and wrong, by the way.)

Fear is a valuable and normal human emotion. Fear communicates pay attention, now.

Yet, the pervasive presence of fear in our world is not normal. The binary, quick-draw fear response is not so normal. Fear like this walls off our ability to access the innate intelligence held in our wholebody. Fear escalates, goes sideways, creates lies. Fear puts our cognition solely in charge, leaving our heart and belly on the sideline.

Pervasive fear is not generous, free, or loving.

I know this because I have seen the same deep, consuming fear in our money culture, our money relationships, and the systems and structure built for money operation.

Fear is the undercurrent of money.

This connection between fear and money is obvious to me, and always has been. For decades, I naïvely thought everyone could easily see the fear-money relationship, as well as our culture’s insidious fear mongering.

But until my book was published, and until readers shared helpful feedback about their experience with the book, I did not explicitly emphasize the truth of fear-based money relationships.

I didn’t, therefore, articulate the deepest purpose of Somatic Finance.

Somatic Finance aims to move from fear-based money relationships to financial freedom, where all people access their wholebody wisdom and make choices from that generous space.

As we practice Somatic Finance to move away from fear-based money relationships, so will we gain the ability to skillfully respond to the guaranteed changes AI will bring to bear. For fear and money, or fear and AI, or fear and climate, or fear and political instability, we need the same skills.

Staying with AI for a moment, you will inevitably hear, see, and read much opinion and information about the benefits and dangers of Artificial Intelligence in its myriad forms.

Where do you stand?
How does the news strike you?
Are you familiar with current events?
Have you been devouring every morsel of news?
Have you been shutting off or turning away?

Most importantly, what happens in your body when fear forces arrive?

Let’s choose this opportunity to welcome our fear, receive our innate intelligence, attune to the wisdom, and skillfully respond – over and over again.

Join me and others who choose to create a better world, sans fear, more love.

Let us practice with our wholebody.

Moving from fear to freedom to love,

Woot! Woot! The Body of Money is now available in book, kindle, and audio form! If you have been waiting for a preferred version, click HERE to get your copy!

If you have enjoyed reading and benefitting from your experience, please follow this link to write an Amazon review and encourage new readers to benefit from this writing.

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Tiny Body Practice

Create Space — Pause. Breathe. Open.

Preparation:

This simple and short practice is written and engaged in my new book as a way to stay present, in your body, as life (joy, sorrow, fear, anger) arises with a situation that could easily go sideways. It is simple and it is reliable. Unpacking these words before the practice gives your brain information to relax, and thereby enable easier engagement if you are not open. (More on open in a minute.)

Pause. Pause to gently slow your pace and give yourself a chance to recognize what is happening right now in your wholebody. Pausing is kinder than a hard stop. But if pause for you means you continue to move fast, use stop. Pause can feel like slow motion. And that’s good.

Breathe. Breathe means to notice where your breath is located, what it feels like, and make a choice if you want to change it or remain curious how it changes itself. Examples of intentionally changing are to move it deeper in your belly or wider in your chest.

Open. Open is a word to describe the space available to respond. A closed space has no movement. No change. Little ability to respond with clarity, confidence, and connection. We gain familiarity with how openness, or I like to say space, feels in our wholebody. Is our head clouded with many thoughts? Is our body rigid and tight? Space allows for insights to emerge and creative juices to flow.

The Practice

1. Wherever you are in this moment, pause.
2. Lower your gaze if that assists you in pausing.
3. Say to yourself: Pause.
4. Bring your attention to your breath.
5. Notice where your breath is located and how it feels to breathe.
6. Notice the pressure, temperature, and movement of your breath.
7. Choose to remain curious how your breath is moving.
8. Or choose to move your breath deeper in your belly and wider in your chest.
9. Take 3 chosen breaths in your slower pace.
10. Release focus on your breath.
11. Give attention to the quality of the space in your body.
12. How open, spacious, light, easy, relaxed do you feel inside?
13. Open more space in in your body.
14. Open. Open further.
15. Close your practice noticing the difference in the quality of your presence.

Post Practice

Wonder how creating more space, through practicing Pause. Breathe. Open.  serves your clarity, confidence and connection.

Keep pausing, breathing and opening!

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Deepening Practice

Pause. Breathe. Open.

by Gayle | May 25, 2023

Hello body practitioners!

I have a dream that the word practice becomes obsolete. Eventually our human life will be sufficiently integrated, elegant fluid integrity, so the word practice has no meaning. In other words, our way of being subsumes practice, we simply are life practice in motion.

Until then, we practice, and I offer Tiny Practices for support.

Pause. Breathe. Open. is a simple practice that can be engaged almost anywhere. I am trying to think of a place or situation it is not accessible; no answer is arriving. You tell me where it cannot be practiced.

This simple, short, integration practice is written and engaged in my new book as a way to stay present, in your body, as you read the words on the page, or listen to the audio read aloud. It is simple and reliable because the first two instructions are already very familiar to you.

We pause by slowing down our pace or stopping.

We breathe naturally without having to think about it.

We are invited to open, which is unique to each of us and an invitation to personally discover.

Unpacking these words before the practice gives your brain information to relax, and thereby enable easier engagement if you are not open. Being closed is not a problem. We choose to open, and our choice allows us to grow, become who we are. (More on open and these three instructions below. ) 

Thank you for your practice.

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Tiny Body Practice

Create Space – Pause. Breathe. Open.

Preparation:

Pause to gently slow your pace and give yourself a chance to recognize what is happening right now in your wholebody.

Breathe means to notice where your breath is located, what it feels like, and make a choice if you want to change it or remain curious how it changes itself.

Open describes the space available to respond. A closed space constricts choices and ability to respond. We gain familiarity with openness, or space, and how we respond.

Choose three times (e.g. AM, afternoon, evening) or situations (e.g. breakfast, work meeting, family interaction) during your day to practice.

• Note if you are alone, or with another person, or place.
• What happens in the situation that is familiar?
• What happens in the situation that is new?
• How does your experience of P.B.O. assist you?

The Practice

1. Wherever you are in this moment, pause.
2. Lower your gaze if that assists you in pausing.
3. Say to yourself: Pause.
4. Pause and bring your attention to your breath.
5. Notice where your breath is located and how it feels to breathe.
6. Notice the pressure, temperature, and movement of your breath.
7. Choose to remain curious how your breath is moving.
8. Or choose to move your breath deeper in your belly and wider in your chest.
9. Take 3 chosen breaths in your slower paused pace.
10. Release your focus on your breath.
11. Give attention to the quality of the space in your body.
12. How open, spacious, light, easy, relaxed do you feel inside?
13. Open to more space in your body.
14. Open. Open further.
15. Choose your response.
16. Notice the quality of your presence and chosen response.

Post Practice

At the end of your day, reflect on your three experiences.

• What happened in the situation that was familiar?
• What happened in the situation that was new?
• How did your experience of P.B.O. assist you?
• What other situations would this practice serve you?