February 2019 Newsletter

“All you need is love.”

-John Lennon

Dear Friends

Someone once said “Hate is not the opposite of love . . . fear is!” Think about this for a moment, can you sense the truth in that statement? Try this experiment. Think about something that is frightening for a moment, hold it and notice how you feel. Check your chest, your facial expression and, your shoulders. Now think about someone you love deeply. Hold on to that thought. Did you feel the shift? How does your body feel now? How powerful the position of love is!

Did you know that if you rub your hand over the area on your chest where your heart is located, the hormone oxytocin is released? Try it now! This hormone is often called the “Love Hormone”, and it causes the human organism to bond, and attach. It is automatically released in women after the birthing process, and also while a woman or man is having an orgasm. Oxytocin also increases the ability to have empathy, compassion, and desire. But, wait…there’s more! Something else happens when Oxytocin is abundant – The human body functions at an optimum level. That is, all systems work together perfectly to support and enhance the quality of our life. Why not go ahead and rub your chest now?

We just talked about love, but what about fear? Fear works in the exact opposite way as love. In fact, one study showed that if someone holds the thought of fear for only five minutes, their immune system will be suppressed for as long as six hours! Wow!

If we have a choice to move into love (and we do), why do we hesitate? Doesn’t that hesitation mean we have chosen to feel fear instead? Notice and be a gentle observer of yourself. Don’t just go out and look for love. Instead, find and heal all the barriers you have built up against it. As President Obama once said in a speech he gave in Omaha, Nebraska, “What matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame – but rather, how well we have loved.”

Keep in mind the lyrics from yet another Beatles song, “And in the end, the love we take is equal to the love we make.”