Grace and Grit

by | Jan 11, 2018

Grace comes in the form of staying in bed with a blossoming cold even when scheduled for a workout.

Grit comes in the form of shoveling snow off of a roof for the first time even though heights are terrifying.

Both of these happened within the last five days.

Grace comes in the form of a pause, holding spikey thoughts and allowing words to wash away like a breeze.

Grit comes in the form of expression clear and direct to cut through clouds of lingering false beliefs.

-I’ve held my thoughts and expressed firmly within the last month.

Grace comes in the form of compassionate bridging when systems are now riddled with fear and polarities. Grit comes in the form of action when insanity is so harmful we muscle courage toward the unknown.

Last year I danced and slogged through being and doing – filling the ground of pretty and ugly.

Grace and Grit became familiar to me first when reading Ken Wilber’s 2001 book by the same title. Over the years these two words have been used together – for countless situations and occasions. In October of last year, these bookends held Emerging Women founder Chantal Pierrat’s keynote. Today, this month, as we begin a new year and a new opening for Somatic Finance, I offer Grace and Grit as vital capacities on our fluid map of discovery. Grace and Grit are the pith capacities to embody dignity. Dignity, an essential nutrient of human existence, is the theme offered for 2018. Dignity is energized in our spine connected by the heart and our belly. Grace moves through the heart. The belly holds grit. Grace and Grit enable us to get through the fiery realities we face, today; not yesterday and not tomorrow. Now.

Grace and Grit are both essential skills.

Grace and Grit key into situations quickly – silently – precisely – compassionately.

Grace and Grit are the mother load of feminine warriors.

Grace and Grit are mastered through three centers in the body – head, heart and belly.

The fruition of Grace and Grit is Dynamic Dignity, an ever-flowing ability to be attentive to life with warrior skill, kind attention and an evolutionary nudge. Dignity allows for the tendency to fade and constrict in challenging situations to be strong, clear, and here.

Money consistently presents opportunities for practicing and embodying Dynamic Dignity, whether a “positive” or “negative” situation. Whether seeking answers for accumulated savings, or making a choice for charitable giving, or navigating insurance claims for property loss, or evaluating health coverage options, or holding the pain of financial injustice… Dynamic Dignity reveals fresh truer insights and energy to move in a beneficial direction.

Let’s emphasize these words offered together with clear intention. We’ve covered dignity. Let respect be meaningful to you now and always. Dynamic is moving – forward, pausing, sideways, energized and precise. Dynamic is putting the force into something happening. Dynamic means it is now, time, to get going. Once your insight provides sufficient J clarity, take action. Get moving. Do something.

For your money, this means it is not sufficient to understand where overspending beliefs and behavior originated. Take that new understanding into a practice to heal, be generative, improve money health, and resolve permanently the ticks and tugs that have held you back. Grace and grit will lead and hold the way.

It’s 2018. Put a stake in the ground to integrate money – in all ways – through the body – in your life. Begin by committing to dignity. Then, practice with this month’s 5 minute Try-it – Dynamic Dignity – to feel this precious nutrient come alive in your body.  Practice until your Dynamic Dignity is embodied… in all situations, you remain steadfast, present, clear, compassionate and right action follows.

May Grace and Grit feed our way,