The Medicine is in the People
The essence of human connection is what keeps us alive. The moment friends catch eyes or feel alone in another’s presence, a special signal flashes, “Don’t worry, you are safe. I am here with you”. Deep parts of the brain are illuminated by this connection and the more rooted you are in the brain, the more physically attuned you become. This stability helps eradicate disease, the toxins of negativity, and the toll of fear on our being.
Primal states of fear helped ensure our survival, molding our deeper brain to serve us with evolutionary advantages and adoptions. We are historically in biologically encoded to stay alive and stick together so we can pass on our legacy to our most precious kinship. These aged and saged parts of our brain help convert chemical mandates that intern prompt what will be physiological survival and safety.
Unfortunately, we are more often than not out of touch with what real and necessary fears are. We bury them with the maddening neocortical entanglement of illusory fears. We suffer daily from self-sabotage, for example having the same stress response to traffic our ancestors had to ravenous mountain lions; or fearing failure so convincingly that our limbic system believes we’ve walked into the gladiators arena. All of this is counterproductive to the purpose of our innate desire to survive: the protection of connection.
If you’ve suffered from this, fear not! There’s neuroplastic hope! try to be patient, knowing that an increase in practice will help to maximize the long-term benefits. By committing to immersing yourself in an amiable community of people you make room for powerful positive feelings of love and peace. Like many other mammals, we are social, very sentient, and inclined toward integration with our pack. We are meant to live, commune, support, celebrate, and spread love with and for one another.
As the heat mellows into the crisp air of change in the autumn air, dedicate yourself to spending time with those you love be thankful for the opportunity to share your journeys together in life.
This season, use this mantra to help make a loving, trusting leap of faith with others in this world: “My being contains the strength of 10,000 hearts, and with it I choose to connect”.
————- May your consciousness delight and may keep you well and happy for many seasons to come.
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Article originally published in Natural OC's Fall 2014 issue under Analee S. P.’s column, "Meditation from the Wilderness"