If you have been reading recent columns you are aware that we are exploring the field of Somatic Finance^TM, a new territory of study and practice connecting the brilliance of the mind with the integrity of one's body center, through the compassion of the heart. In short, Somatic Finance^TM is an integration of the head, heart and belly, in all matters of money.

In these broad areas, the head, heart and belly, there is a continuum of body wisdom that manifests in our conduct and character. Last month I offered the most closed and open ends of the spectrum and what our conduct looks like on these extremes. Most of us land somewhere in the middle. In these current articles, we are touching the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

With the motivation to become more aware, by bridging the head, heart and belly, let's focus on one of the three somatic areas that ignite the development of Somatic Finance^TM intelligence: the head. The head represents wisdom - the unity of Knowledge and Intuition. The head has the function of allowing for, or closing down. Let me elaborate.

Knowledge (for ease of understanding) is housed in the left brain. Knowledge includes all of the facts and figures related to money and finance. Knowledge is where 99.9% of the financial world lives. It is knowledge that permeates economics and calculates numbers and even studies behavior and psychology about money. This disconnect is a deviation from truth that deeply inspires the motivation to bring forth body wisdom.

Behavioral finance and the psychology of money are limited in scope and continue to resort to their own origin, the left brain/knowledge, for interpretation and answers. Instead of developing further with the body through practice toward embodiment, more of the same is rehashed and reconfigured to understand more in the head. Simply creating more knowledge about knowledge is going nowhere. We need intuition to create something new.

While this discussion might appear to separate the head from the body or the left brain from the right brain, in truth we always operate from whole brain and we always operate from whole body. This discussion is meant to illuminate how much of your brain and body are you utilizing, and how much are you aware of?

Intuition could likely be a "bad word" in finance. Are you kidding? Who wants to trust their money to something as weird and un-measured as intuition? But intuition is the right brain, the other half of the brain that allows for our sensing and for human experience to unfold and be included. Without intuition, knowledge is sterile. It has nothing to relate to except itself. Again, that way goes nowhere.

Intuition includes and opens up the space for our heart, our belly, and our body... every aspect of Life itself. Jill Bolte Taylor's book, Stroke of Insight, is perhaps the best description of the jewel of the right brain, reported from her own life-threatening experience. Jill, a neuroanatomist, suffered a severe hemorrhage on the left side of her brain that incapacitated her. What followed during her miraculous recovery, layered onto her precise anatomical understanding, led to masterful insights about the human brain and why the intuition housed in our right brain is vital to our development. It's vital to our happiness.

When we appraise what the head allows for, we see intuition and knowledge in unity. The head can allow for our growth, our insights, and our body wisdom to be incorporated in the money experience. It means that we open to more of reality and we gain a bigger perspective. Money no longer harnesses fear and doubt and scarcity but is liberated and integrated into a much larger picture. We get glimpses of authentic joy.

When we see more we are then able to make decisions that serve us, others, and all beings. Growth doesn't always mean more money and property. Success doesn't mean a higher salary and degrees. We embody the truth that the physical form is impermanent and none of the material wealth and titles manifested in this life "go with us"; we act differently. Conduct matters.

"What the head closes down" is evidenced when knowledge excludes intuition. Knowledge can be filled with fear, doubt, confusion and greed, leaving no opening for intuition. Intuition is sourced through love, generosity, compassion and peace. Where there is love, there cannot be fear. Where there is generosity, there cannot be greed. Frequently, most often, knowledge is driven by fear, uncertainty, and greed, and never gets a chance to include intuition. Frequently, most often, money is driven by fear, uncertainty, confusion and greed. There is no space left for intuition.

Returning to the recognition that the bodymind is not separate, in order to be aware of soma - body / heart and belly, we must possess capacity. Awareness is a cognitive (head) capacity. So in some ways, even though the head is the last physical development forming from the human embryo, it is where we begin the journey of Somatic Finance^TM. In order to understand the concept of somatic finance, it is necessary to be curious and open to exploring; and also to be able to understand the territory we are exploring.

I will never forget a client meeting many years ago when a couple was struggling with a home renovation project that had tripled in cost. The couple was playing out their central operating pattern that at this time happened to be about money. To assist in shifting, e.g. mind states, behavior, contraction, I asked, "What do you notice in your body?" The wife described a nauseous churning in her belly. The husband said, I don't feel anything below my neck.

This exchange was vitally important to create a different result - to help them move toward intuition and knowledge unity, and to help them see a bigger perspective and enable an action that served their situation. If we stayed with knowledge, we would go nowhere. Even if we asked about their feelings, each would have said: I feel angry; still going nowhere. In this example, the wife was able to access her right brain to sense body sensations; the husband stayed locked in his left brain trying to figure out an answer. This outcome is not to point fingers of she did it right and he did it wrong. It opens the access points of discovery, and ultimately, freedom. More about this as we continue next month.

For now, get a sense of the opportunity available. In order to shift the gridlock of the entanglement, we need access to body wisdom. I followed my intuition to ask about sensations in the body. They responded a step closer to wisdom, unity of knowledge, and intuition.

Exploring and clarifying,

Jill Bolte Taylor's

TED Talk