04/08/2025
Yes 🙌🥰✨🙏🏽
I know that your feed is full of bad news right now, so here's something I hope will help if you are feeling depressed:
Maslow got it wrong - survival is NOT the primary bio-imperative.
Love and connection are.
In 1978 researcher Mary Ainsworth showed that a caregiver who is consistently responsive and available to a child helps that child create security and comfort - and this isn't just emotional, it's based in neuroscience.
Early attachment experiences shape the development and adult structure and function of the brain - with a less reactive amygdala and a more inhibitory PFC (prefrontal cortex). A healthy brain is a connected brain. if you didn't get that from your primary caregiver, it's okay, brains can change. You can change.
A healthy life is a connected life - full of love, attachment, and the security that goes beyond the material and even the impulse for survival.
Now, here's the intersection - according to yogic theories - especially those influenced by Bhakti Yoga and/or Gaudiya Ta**ra - with regular yoga practice attachment, connection, and a sense of deep, universal love expands and grows creating an unshakeable haven of connection and attachment. Attachment shifts from a caregiver to the inner higher Self.
Practice plugs us into the infinite, limitless flow of cosmic love - the wellspring of love that can never dry up, that no one can take away from us ever, that will never abandon us, and that gives our lives deep meaning and purpose.
When you understand and embody that this limitless, cosmic love is the fabric of the universe - life becomes magical, dark times become bearable, and action becomes inevitable - as a young yogic monk once said to me when I asked him why he decided to become a monk, "I practiced so much meditation, and my heart was so overflowing with love that there was no choice other than to offer my life in service."
This is not spiritual bypassing - it's actually the strongest resistance available to the dark forces. Insight into the love that weaves the universe gives you the security to move forward, do the right thing, stand up to injustice, and change the world.
The universal river of love is calling to us all. Love is what overcomes everything. Love calls us to stand in our truth and act from a place of courage and righteousness.
Keep the flame of hope alive in your heart and nourish it with the energetic flows of love (the rasas) that are all around you, always. Catch them and surf on them in your chanting, your asana practice, your pranayama, and your meditation, and let them inform every action you take today.
