UP #41: What is Love? (Part 1) with Sierra Bender

Have you ever pondered the question, “what is love”?

We live in a world of heart-wrenching love songs and romantic Hollywood dreams. But is this really love or is this just cause for further discontent in a fantasy world of rainbows and kittens?

Love. A word so freely used and so greatly misunderstood. The “love” that drives our cultural paradigm is fluffy, sweet, passive…romantic. Hollywood love – fickle love – the emotion of love. But Hollywood love is romantic love is ego love. Ego love separates who and what is worthy – and when they are worthy. Ego love judges. Ego love falls in. Ego love falls out. Ego love bypasses those it perceives as “other”. Ego love conforms to a false definition created by a fantasy-driven culture. The foundation of ego love is separation. This is the illusory love of a spiritually vacant paradigm.

Jane Goodall once said that we only protect what we love. Collectively, we’ve fallen short in this area. With rampant obesity, addiction, anxiety, isolation, depression and a heavy reliance on pharmaceutical numbing agents, it’s blatantly obvious that the precarious state of today’s world is a direct reflection of the inner self-loathing projected by the masses. No self love = no love for what truly matters. Ultimately, we can only transcend conflict in the world by healing it first within ourselves. We can only create peace and compassion in the world by embracing it first within ourselves.

Ego love exists within the realm of the mind, for it is the mind that separates, judges, fears, and categorizes. Spiritual love exists within the heart, for it is the heart that knows no boundaries. The heart cannot be broken for it is omnipotent. The ego can be broken for it is an illusion. Love lives in the heart. Love is who we are.

Love is a powerful, expansive, all-encompassing force that transcends the limiting realm of the mind.

True essential love comes from deep within. It is not an emotion. It is all emotion. It’s who we are at our core.

Love is interconnection. Love is unity. Love is life. Love is higher consciousness. Love is action. Love is purpose. Love is selfless. Love is invincible. Love is passionate. Love is fierce. Love is tender. Love is forgiveness. Love is peace. Love is infinite. Love is compassionate. Love is fire. Love is grief. Love is joy. Love is courage. Love is a powerful feeling that transcends the culture of separation and connects us to life – all life.

Love. The most powerful force on earth grounded in action and responsibility. The wise words of Sierra Bender – this week’s Unplug podcast guest.

Sierra is a fiercely passionate activist in the women’s empowerment movement with a dedicated mission to lower the statistics of violence against woman and girls and to reconnect them to their core inner power – the goddess within.

In a recent email newsletter she very accurately wrote:

Our health, children, and relationships are suffering; how can we, as the wealthiest country in the world, have such a high percentage of sexual abuse and addiction issues? A recent study shows that the number of Americans using antidepressants doubled in only a decade.

Doctors are now medicating unhappiness. Too many people take drugs when they really need to be making changes in their lives. According to this government study, antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States.

Depression is anger turned inwards. We have the right to be angry and sad because of the abuse of the feminine. There is relief if we choose to stand in our core female essence and fight from the place of self-love and self-worth. The true definition of female empowerment is what I call Fierce Love. “I will no longer allow my environment to dictate my future.”

This week we discuss fierce love in great depth. The powerful force that connects us to the truth of who we a...