Forgive my profanity. Sometimes being direct is the kindest approach. Let me elaborate.

John Oliver’s brilliant video on Scientific Studies is worth your twenty minutes and conveys a humorous, as well as poignant, perspective to the limitations of scientific studies.

Science is amazing: it brings order, clarity, patterns, and information together so that we can navigate reasonably well in this relative world. Science measures what we can think of to measure, and therefore offers a way to conclude what facts, figures and information can support our need to organize information into systems and patterns, for our benefit. Many studies over many centuries have enabled us to evolve and progress in our modern world.

The conundrum about science is that science can only measure what we know to measure, or what we want to measure, and even what we want to conclude in order to support our beliefs and personal objectives. Often we don’t have the tools developed to even measure what we know is true, as was the case with Einstein’s theory about gravitational waves. His theory was proved in 2016, but Einstein devised the theory 100 years ago! At the time, we lacked the tools to detect the waves.

Society LOVES studies with its supporting evidence to prove something, anything. Financial and money studies are no different. Some studies hold merit and support conscious financial evolutionary actions. Others are conducted in the guise of science, but are actually contrived for the purpose of manipulating emotions, actions, and conclusions. Ultimately we can measure all sorts of stuff, and in the end, create lots of Bullshit.

My financial planning expertise is steeped in science and measurements. Planning involves the right front cerebral cortex and requires a lot of data, sorting, and analyzing in order to prepare for optimal results. We produce future-based financial reports to plan for “what if,” providing an opportunity to make decisions now, for the benefit of tomorrow.

Planning is not a problem. Our grasping at measurements, casting the measurement in stone, and believing the plan is real, rather than a possible outcome based upon a variety of events, causes problems. This is where science is limited. Science pinpoints a conclusion which creates a false sense of security in the decision. “The numbers say that I can comfortably retire.” More accurate and beneficial is to realize that there are millions of possibilities and our intention for an outcome has as much weight as the science. Intention is an internal guide and science is external. These two dimensions must meet.

Here is my invitation to utilize wisdom that goes beyond science. Wisdom – held in our body-mind vessels – employs the entire brain. Science captures the portion of our brain that analyzes, processes, and creates order usually attributed to the “left side”. Intention, our deep motivations, and meaning making, are located in different parts of the brain, accessed easily in the body and usually attributed to the “right side”. When we practice and recognize the brilliant knowing abiding in our whole body, our ability to make wholehearted decisions improves.

A scientific measurement will never create safety for you. It is logical, and logic doesn’t touch safety. But, the amygdala, the primitive brain that determines if we are safe, is calmed with intentional breath, by clarity of mind, by softening the nervous system, and then by feeling the movement, temperature and pressure in different parts of the body. Let me state this very clearly, until we access our body intelligence we will never feel safe. Safety does not reside in measurements.

By the way, remember when I said science can only measure what we know to measure? Recent studies J are now recognizing the intelligence contained within the body, along with the connections which exist between body systems (e.g. nervous, skeletal, connective tissue) and the brain centers. VERY COOL! I am so happy to see the boundaries of science expanding for the benefit of well-being. Science will always be limited, but now, we have the willingness and the capability to measure body intelligence. Check out a small sampling of recent studies: The Brain-Gut Connection, Science Proves the Human Consciousness and Our Material World are Intertwined, The Connection: Mind your body

Let’s go back to the BS. BS results from conclusions based only in financial measurements. We use measurements such as net worth, cash flow, PE ratios, safe retirement withdrawal rates, risk analysis, etc., to determine how we could proceed and make decisions about our finances. At best, these are educated guesses. All of the measurement results are changing and may not even be measuring anything relevant. We think the measurement is important and therefore we place value on it. We then make decisions based upon this BS.

Here is an example: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the growth of a country and infers its health based upon the nation’s overall economic activity. The problem with GDP is that the components of this measurement are from an old way of living, from around the early 1940’s. GDP measures the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. GDP includes all private and public consumption, government outlays, investments and exports minus imports that occur within a defined territory.

However, GDP does not include technology growth and any productivity that is a result of a technology boom. We can now produce more work with fewer people and that is not reflected in the measurement. For example, the pencil industry has been in severe decline since the 1980’s when the personal computer was introduced. The decline in pencil production is directly measured but the growth in productivity related to the PC is not directly measured. You see the void. So when you use GDP to make a decision about how to invest, or whether you can retire, or if you need to save more, your decisions are based on BS and will likely point to a BS decision.

This is but one of many, many, many measurements used to assist us with our money and financial management. We do the best we can with what we have. But, is there a way to access more truth? Or something closer to truth than BS?

Yes, there is. The body. The truth resides in each of our bodies.

The body is where truth can be found reliably, consistently, and in the present – which is what matters most.

As a financial professional, the best practice I have found is: first, access traditional forms of scientific measurement, to lay a foundation. This scaffolding gives a structure for directing attention in service of specific topics that we choose to address. Then, with clear intention and a wide field of possibilities, we ask our bodies for wisdom and guidance. This expanded approach considers not only the best of science, but also the best – that we can measure 😉 – of our human potential: our bodies’ truths.

What might this look like in the “real world”? Here is an example about retirement, a common objective for most people.

The Monte Carlo simulation is calculated to indicate the likelihood of success given the current cash flow (income minus expenses adjusted for inflation), over an assumed life expectancy. The what-ifs over the duration of a person’s retirement vary extensively: financial markets, interest rates, global and domestic economic factors, health, changes in life circumstances, and more. These measurements lay the groundwork to hold a deeper and truer conversation. A conversation that taps to the roots of your well-lived and well-loved life. The conversation moves to your heart about what matters most to you. Is your belly full of excitement? Fear? Both? What does YOUR retirement really look like?

The measurements may indicate that yes, you can and should retire. But what does your body say? Is your body light, joyful, and expansive? Or is your body confused, uncertain, and scared? Maybe, just maybe, your body is saying, I don’t want to fully retire. I still want to be productive. I still want to use my time and energy. Maybe I can shift my current position to part-time, or maybe I can take time off and reassess what I really want given a slower pace. When a decision is made including body intelligence, your body FEELS different. Your body’s unique felt sense shifts in some way to indicate a recognition. What is the shift? That is for you to practice and experience. No one can tell you what your internal wisdom engine will offer but you.

The possibilities are endless. Unless we access the truth of our body’s wisdom, we are captured by measurements as the ultimate guide. And then, when our decision proves unsatisfying, we blame ourselves or others for a poor decision – when really, the decision was made from a limited perspective and one that could only give a limited answer.

Somatic Finance is the gateway to this deeper wisdom. Get curious about what your heart, your belly, and your body’s truth have to offer!

Appreciating my body as a source of truth,