CONNECT
FEEL THE LOVE
The human brain evolved to become the most complex social processing system on the planet. These visualizations induce, enhance, and sustain feelings of warmth, acceptance, safety, and compassion towards ourselves and others, which have been demonstrated to reduce inflammation, thicken the cortex, and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.
feel embraced
savor warmth
enhance altruism
process past harms
harmonize oneself with others
Often referred to as "constructive" practices in the contemplative sciences, CONNECT relies on visualizations and investigations to induce genuine feelings of warmth, love, compassion, forgiveness, and caring concern towards others and ourselves. In addition to its psychological benefits, compassion meditation has been proven to reduce inflammation, thicken the cortex, and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response).
Great religious figures from Buddha to Jesus have long emphasized the power of loving-kindness, compassion, joy in the happiness of others, and the equal distribution of these sentiments to all. For many this is now a universal value, untethered to doctrinal principles of any specific tradition. And yet it can be very difficult to apply. How can we actualize it?
CONNECT offers visualization sequences that generate real feelings of warmth and provides opportunities to extend them to oneself and others. We begin with ourselves and then, at our own safe, self-directed pace, extend that feeling to others, from those we love to those who have harmed us.
Holding on to old hurts only holds us back; we are freed by letting them go. This does not mean we forgive and forget––we remember, but we learn to forgive such that we are not repeatedly harmed by the mere memory of harm.
So CONNECT and feel the love.