Maybe it’s all just love…

Maybe it’s all just love.

This is the sentence that’s been moving through me tonight as I wash the dishes from our Holistic House Community Winter Feast (mmm - gorgeous night as always!). Maybe it’s all just love.

As somebody who runs a business based around wellbeing, healing, support and health and happiness, the question i’m always circling and never quite finding the answer to is ‘what makes a person healthy / happy / fulfilled… and what makes a person unhealthy/ unhappy / unfulfilled?’.

It intrigues me greatly as i’ve been down many a rabbit hole on this subject matter, and it appears that each and every person is completely unique in their experience of wellbeing; there are avid meat-only eaters who swear that the trick to longevity of life is to only eat red meat. There are those on the opposite end of the spectrum claiming that all their chronic health concerns disappeared with a diet of only raw fruit and vegetables. There are those who exercise daily and do all the ‘right things’ and still die young, and there are those who smoke and drink everyday and live to 100… and the opposite. & there is evidence backing all of these claims, too! You can find ‘evidence’ for just about anything.

There are so many variables at play here, but the main one that I, in my limited knowledge as a human being, keep coming back to, is that the people who appear to be the healthiest in body, clearest in mind, most peaceful in spirit and who are able to dream into the future, make peace with the past, and enjoy the present, are those who give and receive love freely as their primary state of being.

I watch as people come through our doors at Holistic House with all sorts of ailments and concerns. They visit different facilitators all offering very different services and each one of them comes away feeling freer, brighter, more whole, at ease, in less pain. Although I am very aware of how each offering provides something unique in its support for body mind and spirit, and none could possibly be condensed into any one thing, the overriding message I get from each person who visits is a sense of being bathed in love and care in some way… Enough for the transmission to pour into that persons body and cells in some sort of way.

Two facilitators or therapists can say exactly the same words, and do the exact same thing, but if the client feels unsafe in their presence their body will only brace more, clench more, create more dis-ease. The secret ingredient that is the most healing tool of all is, I believe, love.

Similarly, you can have a dedicated daily yoga practice, but if you’re meeting that practice with self-hatred, judgement, or expectation that you should be different - your muscles, breath, mind… they will all respond to that energy and your practice (and life) will reflect that.

If, conversely, you visit a therapist who makes you feel heard, seen, held and supported, your body will soften into the massage and healing will happen much more easily.
If you meet your yoga practice with a radical love and compassion for who you are, right here right now today, and allow that to be your primary intention, your breath will soften, you’ll find a deeper listening into how your body needs to find the posture, and you’ll be able to hear the language of your body so much clearer without being distracted with afflictions of the mind.

In our modern western world, we like to overcomplicate, don’t we?

We take traditional practices and turn them into competitive sports.
We intellectualize and try to force a depth of understanding.
We create fancy names to sell classes, and jump on the next ‘big thing’ in wellness.
We forget, or perhaps don’t realize, that at the root of all of these practices is so very simple. It’s love. It’s always love. Love for yourself and everything that’s in front of you right here and now - and when I say love it doesn’t have to be like. It doesn’t have to be nice or mean you have to accept the situation you’re in. It’s a deeply felt compassion that offers grace for yourself and others despite the challenges you might be facing. That sees another human being and says ‘I see you. I am you and you are me’, but always brings the love back home to yourself.

I look at the world and I feel it… It feels so clear. We need more love. We need to cultivate so much love and empowerment that it becomes louder than the hate. Louder than the fear. Louder than the small number of people in power who have ruled through greed, and divide, and manipulation for far too long.

The Beatles knew it. The Buddha knew it. Maharihshi Patanjali knew it. Even the Bible. The Quran. These ancient texts at their root essence all knew it. They all called it a different name, through a different lens, but it all speaks to the same force - that the power of love is the ultimate healer.