This week I have been reminded of the importance of community — or as it is known in spiritual traditions, sangha. When we enter into a supportive, healthy community it offers us something truly fundamental — stability. And as we have been exploring throughout our abundance journey, stabilisation is the bedrock of lasting abundance. We can attract abundance without firm foundations, but can we keep it? In my experience, not usually. Deep roots are what allow us to grow tall.
Community is one of the most powerful ways we can create those roots.
Belonging is a basic human need — as fundamental as food and shelter. Psychologist Abraham Maslow placed it at the very centre of his famous hierarchy of needs, and modern research has continued to confirm what our ancestors always knew instinctively — that we are not designed to do this alone.
Studies by researcher Julianne Holt-Lunstad at Brigham Young University found that social connection is one of the strongest predictors of longevity and wellbeing — with strong social ties reducing the risk of early death by as much as 50%. She found that loneliness and isolation carry health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. These are not small findings.
And it goes deeper than physical health. Brené Brown, whose research on vulnerability and belonging has reached millions of people, describes belonging as “the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us.” Her research found that people who have a strong sense of belonging experience greater joy, are more resilient in the face of difficulty, and recover more quickly from setbacks. In other words — they are more able to receive and hold abundance.
From a neuroscience perspective, when we feel genuinely safe and connected with others, our nervous system shifts out of survival mode. The body stops bracing and begins to open. Dr Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory shows us that social connection literally regulates our nervous system — and a regulated nervous system is one that can receive, allow and sustain good things. Fear and isolation keep us contracted. Community helps us expand.
In spiritual traditions across the world this has always been understood. The Buddhist concept of sangha — spiritual community — is considered one of the Three Jewels, as important as the Buddha and the Dharma themselves. You cannot walk the path alone. We need mirrors, witnesses, fellow travellers.
When we feel safe, we grow. When we grow, we receive. When we receive, we share. And in that sharing, the community itself becomes abundant.
This is what I see happening in our group, week by week.
And this is exactly what we will be working with in this Thursday’s meditation.
So many of us carry wounds around belonging. Perhaps we learned early on that we had to earn our place — that love was conditional, that we needed to be different, quieter, louder, smaller, more, or less than we naturally were in order to fit in. Perhaps we experienced rejection, exclusion, or the particular loneliness of being surrounded by people and still not feeling seen. These experiences leave marks — not just in our memories, but in our energy field, in our nervous system, and in the unconscious stories we carry about whether we are truly welcome, truly worthy, truly enough.
And here is the thing — if part of us does not feel safe to belong, part of us will always hold back from receiving. Because receiving requires opening, and opening requires feeling safe. The wound of not belonging is, at its core, a wound of the heart — and it sits right at the centre of our abundance work.
In Thursday’s meditation we will gently go inward to find those places — the parts that learned to hide, to shrink, to stay on the edges just in case. We will bring them the one thing they have always needed and perhaps never fully received — unconditional love and acceptance. We will cleanse and heal the energy centres connected to belonging, safety and community, working with the root chakra — our foundation and sense of safety in the world — and the heart chakra — our capacity to give and receive love freely.
We will also take a moment to consciously receive the energy of our own community — this beautiful group of souls who show up week after week, doing the inner work, holding space for one another, witnessing each other’s growth. There is more healing in that than we perhaps realise.
Because healing does not only happen alone in meditation. Sometimes the most profound healing happens simply in knowing — truly knowing — that you are not alone. That you are welcome. That you belong.
Join me Thursday 4th June at 7.30pm or message me for the recording
Laura Hamblyn Holistic Healer 