Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system and a branch of biology physiology, sociology, engineering, mathematics, medicine, amongst others. Attachment and connection are critical for human health it shows that for survival; human beings need to learn how to form healthy attachments amongst themselves, with the Earth and with God. A connection is a session and must allow the flow or sharing of something and is an association that causes coherence or continuity. The two parties involved must have a common goal.
An attachment is an affectional bond or a tie between an individual and an attachment figure. It is therefore an emotional connection, and involves remaining independent of someone for something, could be emotional, mental or physical support. Between two adults, such bonds may be bidirectional or reciprocal, while between a nanny and a baby, it may be unidirectional or because the child needs protections. This paper discusses the role of attachments and connections to the assimilation of science of love to spirituality.
Attachment Theory and New Science Theory
The attachment theory explains the dynamics of long-term relationships or associations that can be there between humans especially in families and long time friends. An infant must develop a relationship with at least one caregiver to facilitate its social and emotional development (emu.edu 2011). The new science of attachment states that, the fundamental nature of a man is in his call for connection with others.
Presentations
According to Susan Johnson PhD and director of the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), one can use the influence of feelings and the new science of adult affection to generate effective, stable transformation in couple relationships (emu.edu 2011). In her speech, she points out that the charisma of tenable attachments leads to less reactive people or people who can balance their emotions, curiosity, and ability to process and assimilate into one piece. In addition, such attachments bring a sense of self and people can know who they really are, and finally results to behaving responsively to others by being compassionate and empathetic.
Susan also points out the focus of EFT on growth, intensify awareness, uphold conscious reflection, cultivating compassion for oneself and interdependence (emu.edu 2011). In addition, she puts it clearly in the theory of science attachment that all a man needs is an association with others via the heart or the soul. In her conclusion, Susan points out that love is the central part that promotes there being attachments and connections and we always come back to it in religion, romance and families and mysticism (emu.edu 2011).
According to James Coan’s presentation, tries to connect the attachment theory to the social baseline theory which is like a paradigm shift (emu.edu 2011). The baseline theory, he explains it as the socially connected and interactive human beings who can deal with situations with calculate reactions. He points out that as people remain socially connected and interactive; solving life problems becomes less and less far-reaching. In other word, James defines connection as a process by which humans extend and share with each other their own sense of self or their internal conditions (emu.edu 2011). That is, by taking the internal states of others, then problem solving becomes less effortful. Finally, James closes by pin pointing that, creation of man and woman was an introduction of communism and in community there is peace and sharing and love.
Dan Siegel the co director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center has successfully put together the attachment theory, neuroscience and the conception of a healthy mind to the extent that they together deepen lived experience. In other words, Dan has shown that, in all understanding of what’s going inside of oneself, it is possible to be compassionate even with the responsibility of being in a relationship. This is very important in the acceptance or rejection of situations. Dan points out that, health is the homeostatic and harmonic river-like flow between chaos and rigidity.
In other words, he wants to show that it is the bodied and emotional feelings that promote our health. Daniel goes ahead to define the mind as the developing process that controls the flow of energy and information and the flow of energy is only felt when one feels felt and not when one feels understood.
As discovered earlier, the theory of attachment is about growth and transformation and
John Paul brings out this fact clearly showing how he keenly listens to a transformation song that turns enemies into friends, and he notes that some conceptual bridges exist between the attachment theory and the conflict transformation theory (emu.edu 2011). Through the transformation theory doesn’t fit in the usual attachment research the two shares a common aspect of a bodied state of danger changing in time to a safety state and these associations changing the emotional landscape, and opening up a large multiplicity of possibilities.
According to Nancy, it is important to rethink what is meant by being human, possession of a self sense and beyond the sense of self (emu.edu 2011). This meaning is located in the gaps between family members, lovers and friends. This results to philosophical ethics where ethics is suggested to mean an individual or collective group facing a choice, which means that analysis is by patterned dynamics of each of us. In this case, one can assert that love is true since the attachment theory is also true (emu.edu 2011).
According to Bowlby, a happy life is a series of excursions to and fro a secure attachment, and human beings are born to connect, has consequences for both our view of what being human is but also for what we view God and the world to be (emu.edu 2011). Therefore, we essentially have a human being born to bond, a world that is hospitable and a God who is a loving close relative waiting for all formations to appear at home (emu.edu 2011).
References
Conversation on Attachment, (2011). A trans-disciplinary conference on attachment and Anabaptism. A conference hosted by the Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society and Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia. Held on March 31 – April 2, 2011 retrieved on 22-04-2011 from http://www.emu.edu/attachment/ last updated 02-04-2011
