OUR HOW LOVE HEALS ♥️ RESEARCH PROJECT

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COME CLOSE - LISTEN. LET THE CARE OF COMMUNITY HOLD YOU

How does loving connection repair our nervous system from the lingering effects of loss, pain, anguish & disconnect that arise from so many of life's circumstances? 

This question has been occupying our minds lately because our small group of project leaders have witnessed these healing scenarios unfold in front of our eyes for decades - but who is reporting these stories - These hopeful, inspiring stories & research findings over the media? As of September 1st, 2025: We are.

“Safety is not the absence of threat, but the presence of connection.”

According to Neuroscientist & Psychologist Stephen Porges, whose polyvagal theory has influenced virtually every approach to emotional healing & therapy today, healing & learning is only possible when our body feels safe. 

Stephen says that this feeling safe can be neglected in medical, learning & mental health approaches - so we've decided to make it a priority to spread this awareness here at our community level. 

We think that connective experiences - whether in community, in class, workshops, personal support sessions or in sharing stories of love & healing each impact our wellbeing in all the right ways. 

Our plan is to broadcast both these stories & research findings on podcasts, blogs, You Tube channels, social media, podcasts & a Jim Pattison Media Group show hosted by Tamara Stanners.

Our multiple sources of in person & online connection offer opportunities to share, listen in on & collect stories of How Love Heals ♥️. We want this project  to serve as a refuge from the dark night of overwhelm, shut down, freeze & the pain of disconnect through our Connective Experience Protocol. 

As we begin to understand the findings of this qualitative research, we will share it all as a beacon of hope to the world to inspire & empower many of those who dream of kinder ways to be together on the planet.

Together we can counter the impact of all the OTHER stories we so often hear over mainstream media by focussing on solutions vs the problems.

We have taken what we know from research provided by the Greater Good Science Center & the Polyvagal Institute to propose that healing comes from our nervous system feeling safe enough to drop into rest & repair. where our system can do what it is designed to do - repair anything that disturbs our homeostasis - our wellbeing.

Given this, we felt it would be useful to know the following:

1 What kinds of caring connection puts our system into rest & repair? 

2 What tells us that our system felt safe in connection? 

3 How can we increase these safe experiences? 

The reason this is an important question to ask is that, if your body reads an experience as safe, it's built to settle you into a parasympathetic response  aka our 'rest & repair' state, where your nervous system has a moment to repair from the constant bombardment of information & experiences that make up most of our daily lives.

So what are some of the signs that we are in 'rest & repair'?

We have chosen 5 questions from the Polyvagal Institutes formal assessments to assess the level of safety we sense in connection:

• I am about to connect with someone / I just connected with someone
• My heart rate is steady
• I feel seen & heard by others
• My breath rate feels steady
• I feel warmth / compassion for myself / others
• My body feels settled

We will offer project participants an opportunity to self-assess rating these statements just prior to their project 'session' (of any kind) & just after, in order to measure what effects their connection had on body/mind. 

Our hope is that the data we gather will bring to light the many ways we can heal from inner turmoil, pressures of uncertainty, the long term impacts of covid, of distorted information & of our sense of disconnect. 

As individuals, may we use it to unwind stories of isolation, separation, defeat, hopelessness, loss of purpose & the heartbreak of 'us' versus 'them'.

As a way to counter what comes over the airwaves & into our brains through the media, this project offers nervous systems everywhere plenty of evidence that caring support is available, and that loving connection can indeed be safe. Most of all - may it support our hearts to open to ourselves, each other, & the larger world.

Want to nerd out about the nervous system? 

Understand & interpret your nervous system state using the Polyvagal theory with the easy to read chart below. We hope our qualitative research will reveal how me might collectively shift how we relate to overwhelm, shutdown & disconnect in our day to day lives.

Stay tuned for more as this love story unfolds...