The BALM Blog
See all postsLet the BALM Impact Your Mental Wellbeing
“What’s love got to do with mental health? In the BALM Family Program, this is a question that comes up whenever we share our view of love’s centrality on the recovery journey. . And our answer, as more people are being diagnosed with mental health challenges, is that the question is worth asking because love, as it turns out, has a lot to do with mental health.
Then comes the next question: What kind of love? Because as you know there are many types of love…
There is romantic love – all about a pounding heart and a rollercoaster of emotions.
There is platonic love, like the love for a dog or a best friend, constant and reliable.
And then, there is unconditional, spiritual love. The kind of love that sits at the core of our heart, day in and out, keeping it beating, allowing us to function in a balanced, compassionate fashion.
That type of love is the kind of love I’m talking about right now.
It is there underneath the ups and downs of daily life. It transcends emotion or attachment. At the core of our being state, this love shines through us, letting us see past the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ things going on around or within us, giving us a sense of ‘all is right with the world’, even when everything in the outside world seems far from that truth.
That is the love that appears to be missing from so many lives these days. The love that keeps you going with a sense of fullness and peace, as a source of light in a world that appears to have gone dark.
So how do we get it back?
At a time when so many people feel so depleted regardless of social or financial status, regardless of whether alone or surrounded by people, this is the question we all need to be asking… not whether we will be able to make more money this year or get into the best college or buy the car or horse or house of our dreams.
These may be interesting questions to us, but they are hardly essential. Without the conscious experience of that deep abiding love, bubbling up from deep within us, our lives are hardly complete. And for many, they are unbearable.
‘What the world needs now is love’ was never more true than now. In a time when people are seeking endlessly outside of themselves for that which is best found within, that Love is nearer than the breath yet often seems further than the farthest star.
But, still the question remains: How do we get back to that conscious sense of love being at our core the most powerful force in our lives and in the universe?
The truth is, love never left. That powerful inner sense of Beingness, of Love Unlimited, is where it always was: within us, willing to radiate outward from our hearts to the heart of every being on the planet.
It is only us who have left the love, replacing it with dreams of affluence, fame, status, and the acquisition of ‘things’.
As children, those things are toys,as teens they are cars, as adults they are houses bigger than we could fill and relationships that only look good on the outside, still leaving us empty on the inside.
What’s love got to do with mental health?
Everything. When we allow the love within us to resurface, we stop hating people who are different from us and start seeing how much alike all human beings are, regardless of finances, politics, religion, race, or social status.
Suddenly, or sometimes over time, we begin to see ourselves as givers instead of as people lacking what it takes to bring joy into our own and each others’ lives. We begin to live in each moment, letting go of fears of each other having more, getting more or being more. We stop living lives of scarcity, and yet, all that has changed is our mind.
Love is the answer to the mental health struggles of a generation trying to be something they aren’t, and forgetting to bring who they really are to each and every interaction, each and every breath of life that they breathe.
And all we have to do to begin to realize this bold and self-obvious truth is to look in each others’ eyes through the eyes of love, appreciation and gratitude. Then we begin to see that all that we wish we were, had and did, is right there deep within us, just as it is deep within everyone else. And when we are willing to look within ourselves and all around us with the eyes of love, we can stop the cycle of sadness, anxiety, hatred, and lack that so many of us struggle with, and simply be who and what we are: Love.
So, where is the BALM in all of this?
The simple principles and steps of the BALM serve as a reminder, as guideposts, and as a structure of the what and how to access and maintain that feeling of love and wellbeing that was always there.
And when people take a simple look and do a deeper study of the concepts of the BALM, they often find themselves able to lower the temperature on the thoughts that had been leading to temper tantrums within themselves…
To hear one BALM family member’s perspective on how she has been using BALM to improve her mental state over the past 5 years, click here and we will share the interview I held last week with a family member/coach trainee, who has used BALM to increase her peace, increase her presence, and improve her relationships, all of which were at a low when she entered the BALM
Click here to watch the interview
Best,
Bev