122. Financial Clarity Through Body Awareness: A Guided Meditation with Roland

Ever wonder why you sometimes make financial decisions you later regret? The answer might lie not in your knowledge of investments, but in your state of mind when making those choices.

Roland, a seasoned coach who's worked with financial planners for over 15 years through Aspiral Coaching and Leadership, joins us to share a powerful tool that's transforming the financial planning world: the BodyScan meditation. This isn't your typical meditation practice—it's what Roland calls a "mindfulness hack" that delivers immediate results even for skeptics and beginners.

Through a guided experience, Roland takes us on a journey from the soles of our feet to the crown of our heads, teaching us the crucial skill of directing our attention deliberately. As we practice feeling rather than thinking, something remarkable happens: the constant mental chatter subsides, creating space for clarity and presence. This shift from perpetual thinking to mindful awareness creates the perfect mental environment for making sound financial decisions.

The magic of this practice extends beyond the meditation itself. As our hosts discover, the post-meditation state brings heightened awareness, reduced confirmation bias, and stronger receptivity to professional guidance. When approaching financial planning meetings, this mental clarity allows both planners and clients to engage more authentically, moving beyond preconceived notions to discover truly personalized financial solutions. Ready to transform your relationship with money through mindfulness? This episode offers not just theory but a practical tool you can begin using immediately.

Try the guided meditation, share your experience with us, and discover how this simple practice might become your secret weapon for financial success. Subscribe now for more insights that bridge the gap between personal development and financial wellbeing.

Transcript

Welcome to Know Your Money

Speaker 1 0:12

Hello everybody , welcome to Know your Money . I'm Bronwyn Wehner .

Speaker 2 0:16

And I'm Craig Finch , and we are from Growth Financial Planning .

Speaker 1 0:19

We hope you enjoy our podcast you enjoy our podcast , so today we decided to have Roland back and gift everybody a meditation , basically , that they could come onto our podcast and listen to

Roland Introduces BodyScan Meditation

Speaker 1 0:34

at any time . Roland , do you want to introduce yourself and tell us about BodyScan ?

Speaker 3 0:38

Thanks , brian . Yeah , bodyscan people go . What's a BodyScan ? For me , it's a form of mindfulness . As you know , I work with a lot of financial planners . My company , aspiral Coaching and Leadership , has been working with financial planners for a decade and a half now , and one of the things we do with financial planners is trying to get them to see their own constructs of the world , their own worldviews . Mindfulness is classically one way of doing that and grounding financial planners , getting them calm before a meeting , getting them to apply patience and other EQ skills .

Speaker 3 1:20

And I like the body scan because it feels like a hack , a mindfulness hack . It's very direct . It's very direct , it's very immediate and most people who try the body scan will get something from it , even if they did it for three or four minutes . It is experiential . So , unfortunately , I do get hear a lot of skeptics not wanting to try it or feeling that it's woo-woo

Guided BodyScan Meditation Experience

Speaker 3 1:42

. And this work is , you know , mindfulness work , and the work that I do is very much backed by neuroscience , more and more so . So , yeah , I invite the skeptics and the scientists to , instead of relying on experiments , as scientists do , I would say , rely on something experiential which is subjective and can only be discovered through doing so . That would be my invite to everyone . Are you going to do one today ?

Speaker 2 2:14

I'd love to On all of us yeah , Okay cool .

Speaker 1 2:18

Awesome , take us away . I'm in , okay great .

Speaker 3 2:22

So you're all in the perfect position to do a body scan . I normally say to people get into sort of a typist's position , a comfortable sitting in a chair position , and maybe breathe out , release your muscle tension , perhaps drop your chin , your arms , your hands on your legs with your palms open , not clenched fists , and then , as you feel sort of ease coming over your body , you want to direct your attention to a specific part of your body . You want to direct your attention to a specific part of your body and this directing your attention is one of the ultimate keys of maturing , growing personally , raising your consciousness , if you want to use that word . The directing of your attention is key . So I would start by directing the attention to the soles of your feet . So very acutely , very focused , and try not to visualize the soles of your feet , try to really feel them . It might be tingling or heat , pressure , warmth . It's all about really experiencing those sensations . So once you've learned to direct your attention which is an ongoing skill and then focus your attention , we now want to move through the body and kind of wake up all the sensations along the way so we can move from the soles of your feet perhaps into your calves . You're welcome to tense and release those calf muscles just to get a better sensation of what's down there , what's in there . And as you're waking up those sensations , you're also joining the neural pathways to being closer to your sensations , keeping the awareness of those body parts in your awareness for as long as possible . And that , to use a , brings in alignment of your body , your emotions and your thinking .

Speaker 3 5:17

So , once you've tracked through your calves , maybe move through your knees and into your upper legs . You perhaps even want to run your fingers across your legs just to make sure that you're actually feeling it and not thinking it , just waking up those sensations . And then we continue tracking . We can do this all the way up the body . Start feeling your pulsing , your heat , clothing on your body , tingling . You might just notice that your body is in the foreground , it feels alive and for a short moment your thinking is taking a back seat .

Speaker 3 6:22

And then I'll just finish off by going through the gut , through your stomach , where there are millions and millions of nerve endings . Welcome to place your hand on your belly and feel the heat , feel the pressure Moving through your solar plexus into your lungs . Notice your breathing , see if you can notice your breathing without interfering with it . And then through your throat , welcome to swallow . That usually brings your attention to your throat , your mouth again . Millions of nerve endings moving your tongue around , your palate , your . The slower you do it , the more sensory information you'll get , and then your nostrils becoming aware of the cooler breath in your nostrils and the warm air going out .

Speaker 3 7:56

And then , for the final push , the cherry on top , move your attention to the crown of your head and really give it a push . Give it some very intense focus there . You might sense some tingling on the crown of your head . Give it a few , that quality of attention to your entire body , and slowly come back into the room and just anchor that sensation , that feeling , that way of being . What does that feel like compared to where you were

Post-Meditation Reflections

Speaker 3 8:54

five minutes ago ? What could it mean ? What's different ? What would it make you do differently ? And that's the body scan . So it also is exponentially quite powerful . So if you are doing the body scan two or three times a week over weeks , months , years , it has an increasingly powerful effect and it also increases the speed at which you can drop down into that state .

Speaker 2 9:30

So it's like a mini meditation , almost yeah , but it goes further .

Speaker 3 9:35

Yeah , so it's a sensory , specific sensory form of meditation , which I feel is sort of a hack . So how was that for any of you ?

Speaker 2 9:49

So it was relaxing and very relaxing . You go down to a deep state of meditation , almost relaxing and almost drifted off to sleep , but I just felt very relaxed all around .

Speaker 4 10:04

Great I felt very clear afterwards because I was able to quiet the mind and all the other things that had been going on before just constant thoughts . That's what our mind does constantly think . Afterwards I just felt very clear . Strangely enough , when I was looking at Craig , all I could notice was the plant behind him and how beautiful it was .

Speaker 3 10:26

That's great Perspective shift was .

Speaker 1 10:35

Yeah , that's great perspective shift . I definitely feel more present and I feel as though my body is a bit calmer , because you we do speak about a busy mind , but I also feel like when my mind's busy , I might not be moving like this but it does feel like my body is so true . And now my mind feels calmer , my body feels calmer , so I feel more present . I think Would you see that benefiting you as a planner in the meeting or you as a client in the meeting , coming in feeling like that ?

Speaker 4 11:07

Craig , what do you think ?

Speaker 2 11:10

No , I do . Yeah , you feel much calmer . There's maybe the noise around you on the way to the appointment or whatever you've listened to or you're reading , but calm you , you don't feel like that you're going to be influenced by the noise ?

Speaker 4 11:26

Yeah , I think for me , having that quiet of mind and being

Benefits for Financial Decision Making

Speaker 4 11:32

able to be calm is only going to make me make better decisions and be more open to other views . Because how often do you I mean even going to the doctor ? You've Googled your symptoms so you already know what you've got , but you're going to go to the doctor anyway , doctor you've googled your symptoms , so you already know what you've got , but you're going to go to the doctor anyway .

Speaker 4 11:52

So if you already have a plan in your head for how you want to financially plan your life and you are not in an open and calm state and you go see your financial planner , are you really listening to them ?

Speaker 3 12:03

are you waiting to leave very well said yeah , and waiting for them to confirm your exactly confirmation , exactly confirmation bias , yeah , exactly .

Speaker 4 12:12

So yeah , I think it would definitely benefit it .

Speaker 1 12:14

Yeah , I think it's a true gift , so thank you so much for sharing it with us .

Speaker 2 12:18

Yeah , thank you , nice to

Episode Closing and Disclaimer

Speaker 2 12:20

meet you .

Speaker 3 12:20

Likewise , it was great to do that with you guys . Thank you , thank you .

Speaker 2 12:24

Thank you for listening . If you have enjoyed this podcast and would like to subscribe , please visit our website wwwgrowthfpcoza . The information we have provided in this podcast is our personal opinion . For more detailed information , please discuss your financial situation with a financial planner .