A New Healing Science of Love...?

Medicine today focuses primarily on the physical & mechanistic: drugs & surgery, genes & germs, microbes & molecules.

However, no other factors – not diet, smoking, or exercise, not stress, genetics, drugs, or surgery – have a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness & premature death than loneliness & isolation.

To heal or want to heal, life has to be meaningful. Yet, this crucial component of humanity is often ignored. Health practitioners don't learn about the healing power of love & intimacy.

We are creatures of community. Those individuals & cultures who take care of each other, to love each other, & to nurture relationships with each other during the past hundred thousand years were more likely to survive than those who did not.

In our culture, the idea of spending time taking care of each other & creating communities is becoming increasingly rare. There is a deep spiritual hunger in this country. The real epidemic in our culture is not only physical disease, but also emotional & spiritual. The profound sense of loneliness, alienation & depression that are so prevalent in our culture with the breakdown of the social structures that used to provide us with a sense of connection & community.

Love & intimacy — our ability to connect with ourselves & others, is at the root of what makes us sick or what makes us well, what causes sadness & what brings happiness, what makes us suffer & what leads to healing.

Awareness is the first step in healing, both individually & socially. Part of the value of science is to increase the level of awareness of how much these choices matter that we make each day.

When there is an understanding of these issues and how they impact our quality of life, then there is something that can be done about it:

-Support groups
-Touch (massage, shiatsu, hugs!)
-Community events
-Yoga Karma (service to others & volunteering)

Enjoy, Olga & Chris