Meaning is found in relationship

“The experience of witnessing beauty is what creates the sensation of love” - Zach Bush MD

My summary of Module Eight: ‘Connect’ from The Journey of Intrinsic Health

———

Are we - us humans - a part of nature?

Take a look around… it certainly doesn’t seem like it. 

Pretty much every aspect of our western lives sees us, and literally has us, separated from nature. 

Our dictionaries even define us as separate from it, with nature defined as “plants, animals, the landscape, and other features of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations” 

Worth noting the use of the word “opposed” there. 

We literally wrote ourselves into opposition to nature and sadly we behave accordingly.

If you read any of my earlier posts from this course, you’ll remember that we humans are in fact, more non-human than human. 

The human body consists of 70 trillion cells, and around 40 trillion of them (so more than half!) are non human. 

Our genomic make-up is 150 times more bacterial than human.

And yet we still believe we are separate from nature. 

I’ve written previously about the impact of this disconnection from nature, in particular in the context of our food system and how this relates to our overall (declining) wellbeing. 

Today I’m going to approach it from another angle: connection.

All life exists in relationship to other

Sadly, we not only separate ourselves from nature - we separate ourselves, full stop. 

We ignore the oneness - the consciousness - the shared experience - that is this human experience. 

Which is ironic because everything you think you are (i.e. every role you think you have) only exists in relationship to others. 

Yet we’ve separated, isolated and disconnected ourselves from each other, and our loneliness is now killing us. 

In fact, a number of studies now suggest that social isolation is a greater risk to human health than obesity. 

Other studies indicate that it’s more likely to result in your early departure from this human form than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. 

As soon as you isolate, you lose perspective on who you are and why you’re here. 

After that? Things often turn a little dark. 

At the cellular level this is called cancer.

Cancer cells are the most isolated and damaged cells in the human body.

They have lost their cell identity and natural function. They no longer have a relationship with the other cells in your body. 

Another way of saying this is that cancer is ultimately a symptom of a total isolation event at the cellular level. 

And so instead of trying to kill these lonely and highly damaged cells, we should instead ask how we can welcome that cell back into community, back into relationship with the other cells? 

As soon as a cancer cell reconnects to the cells around it, it disappears. 

It eliminates itself through a process called apoptosis, a gentle dissolution of the cell, and a stem cell is called in to replace the cancer cell with new vibrant cells that are interconnected with the greater human organism. 

Redefining connection 

You could make a case that, thanks to the internet, we’re more connected than ever before.

But the reality is that our online connectivity has been usurped by commercial interests.

It’s not about us anymore. Corporations are capitalising on human connection.

And just look back over the last 10 years to see where that has gotten us.

Somehow the most ‘connected’ civilisation in human history is also the most isolated and polarised.  

When we strip away all the stories of separation and polarising perspectives, we realise (or perhaps remember) that we are a single species with a single outcome: survival or extinction.

And if we want to survive, we’re going to have to re-imagine our relationship - our connection - to each other and to nature itself.

We are here to witness beauty 

One of the most powerful things I’ve ever heard Zach Bush share is that the fabric of everything is not love, it is beauty.

To some this may sound incredibly vague or like some classic spiritual BS.

But in recent months I’ve begun to see and feel the truth of what he meant.

I’ve begun to notice the tapestry of colours in the leaves on a tree. The depth of detail in the eyes of my daughter. The nuance of the fur on my dog.

Like, really notice it. Really witness it.  

Zach asserts that the experience of seeing beauty is what creates the sensation or feeling of love.

So to close out this series, this is my invitation. 

To truly become witness to the beauty of nature and of the world around you, and in doing so reconnect to the feeling of love.

Love for nature, each other, and for yourself.