“Never underestimate the empowering effect of human connection.
All you need is that one person, who understands you completely, believes in you and makes you feel loved for what you are, to enable you - to unfold the miraculous YOU.”
―
Theme for 2023: Resilience by Affiliation - a core concept of Affiliative Neuroscience
We need people. We need human connection. There is no way around it.
The people, data and systems we expose ourselves to shapes our brain, behaviors and futures.
Data can come from what is projected to us by flat screens - influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) - designed by humans to magnetize our attention and saturate us with neurochemicals to keep us hooked. (this design consists of: pleasure/status/reward hormones → addiction → predictable behaviors → profit and power.) If you think you’re not predictable and not influenced by the neurochemical-based influences of what happens on your screen, zoom out a bit further and watch how your actions and reactions follow familiar cycles and rhythms. Even if you don’t see it, AI does. (I'm definitely not an exception!)
Data also comes from natural systems - nature and live human interaction. Driven by forces beyond our comprehension. Unpredictable, uncertain. These systems test our strength and resilience to their upper limits and beyond. We have the brain architecture and neurophysiological capacity to adapt to these challenges. We maximize these capabilities with the right kind of mindset, sense of purpose, community, team and people.
Who and what we surround ourselves with matters. Our sense of family and community matter to our wellbeing and ability to fulfill our highest potential. How will you update your past-based algorithms and open your heart and mind to the love and support of others in 2023 to help you align with your highest capacities? The world needs you - needs all of us - to open up to how we are so deeply and beautifully connected with each other. There are so many forces at play we simply cannot understand... but we can stay open to being a part of that bigger picture when we allow ourselves to open up to what human love is capable of. A most special kind of human love is the one we exude even when we don’t think we’ll get anything in return.
I realize that I need to let go of my personal and ego-driven interests in order to let whatever this Life Force is do its work... it works through each of us in our own unique and spectacular ways. Sometimes we have to let the ebbs and flows, the ups and downs, the dark phases of pain and challenge shape us into something we never would have predicted. I realize that the unfolding of Life may not grant me the personal wishes I think I have right now - I have to let that go in service of whatever is the highest good, even if it feels like it hurts my ego. Grateful for the people who have pushed me in those ways, and for those who seem to never give up on the potential they see in me - I hope to do the same for others. Don't give up - whatever dark space you may be in right now. It is building strength within you - and part of that strength comes from the pain of vulnerability where the only way out is to open up to love and to something bigger than yourself.
With Love, Love and more Love… from Me to You
(sending some extra love because I think the world needs that right now 🙂
Xoxo
Stefanie
In case I don't post again until next week, here are some articles:
stefaniefaye.com/articles/adding-awareness
stefaniefaye.com/articles/power-and-purpose
stefaniefaye.com/articles/resilience-is-not-about-perfection/
https://stefaniefaye.com/articles/our-statistical-brain/
stefaniefaye.com/podcast/season-3-ep-3-the-socio-biomechanics-of-resilience-trust-and-flow/
Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them,
and explore the consequences of their removal.
Russell L. Ackoff
Spending as much time as I do due to my job and book writing has put me in front of screens to a degree that I think is affecting my focus and mental clarity, as well as spiritual states of being*. Still trying to find the right balance, but must admit I find it challenging sometimes. I enjoy writing my blog, and enjoy creating my podcast... I haven't created any videos in a while so I'd like to try to get that back in as well, but when it comes to social media, there is something about it that often seems to throw me off-center. It's an arena where I don't feel like I can compete - and I'm ok with that. I'm allowing all of this to continue to be fuel for my dream of increasing the ratio of in-person and in-nature scenarios - even if that will still take a while to form into something more concrete.
*I'll find a scientific way to describe that at some point
#behindthescenes #offscreens #longtermvision #love #love #love #unity #unifiedpurpose #cometogether #team #community #mission #purpose #endurance #familyunit #humanpotential #awakening #unraveling #crisis #passingdownwisdom #futuregenerations #resilience
On a side note…
here is an excerpt of a letter that Einstein wrote to his daughter:
…”When I proposed the theory of relativity, very few understood me, and what I will reveal now to transmit to mankind will also collide with the misunderstanding and prejudice in the world.
I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force.
This universal force is LOVE.
Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it.
Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others.
Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals.
For love we live and die.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life.
After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…
If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.
