Most of us know about fight or flight. Some of us have heard of freeze or fawn. Gina Vance counts nine instinctive survival responses, and she believes none of them are dysfunctions. In Life Is Hard and Then You Fly: How Your Nine Instinctive Responses Can Turn Pain into Purpose Through the Revolutionary Healing Power of SMGI®, Gina shares her memoir, a collection of client stories, and a practical workbook for anyone who has tried everything and is ready to go deeper. In this episode of Author Hour, Gina explains how years of excruciating pain moved her from drawing lighting blueprints to building her own path to healing. She walks through what Somatic Mindful Guided Imagery is and who it’s for, the four universal fears that keep people from doing inner work, why emotional pain is physical pain, and how the Central SELF quietly shows up the moment you start noticing. She also shares the client stories that stay with her and what it took to write her life story, including waiting years and hoping readers could find compassion for the person who hurt her most.