🏡 Rooting in New Soil
Building Beloved Community Wherever We Are
Starting over in a new place can be both exciting and unsettling. The landscape is unfamiliar, rhythms shift, and routines that once grounded us must be rebuilt. This year, I have been learning how to root again, how to create community in a new environment while holding gratitude for where I came from.
At Love Before ALL (LBA), we believe belonging is not found; it is cultivated. Building Beloved Community begins with being present to the soil beneath our feet whether that soil is physical, emotional, or spiritual. Wherever we find ourselves, love is both the seed and the strategy for connection.
🧠 The Brain and the Biology of Belonging
Belonging is not only emotional, it is biological. Neuroscience tells us that connection is a basic human need, as essential as food and water. When we feel isolated or unsafe, the amygdala (almond-shaped brain structure responsible for processing emotions and turning on the body’s stress response) activates, releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, this chronic activation can lead to anxiety, fatigue, disconnection, and deterioration.
In contrast, when we feel seen, valued, and supported, the brain releases oxytocin and dopamine, chemicals that promote trust, optimism, and emotional stability. According to research from the Social Neuroscience Laboratory at UCLA, even brief moments of positive connection can buffer stress and strengthen immune function.
In short, community care is nervous system care. Belonging literally restores balance to the brain and body.
💛 What LBA Elevates
From our “Love in a Time of Division” (November 2025) reflection, we know that compassion is the bridge that reconnects us when systems and stories divide us. From “Gratitude Beyond the Table” (November 2025), we learned that gratitude anchors us in what remains good and shared.
Building “Beloved Community" brings these truths together. At LBA, we teach that healing does not happen in isolation, it happens in relationship. To root in new soil is to trust that connection will meet us where we are willing to plant love.
This is what we call Relational Justice, the work of creating ecosystems of care, reciprocity, and dignity in every space we enter. Whether we are leading organizations, families, or movements, belonging is not a program to design but a practice to live.
🌿 Leadership Lessons from New Soil
Relocating and rebuilding community have been a reminder that leadership begins with listening. Every environment has its own rhythm, its own cultural story, its own pace of trust. Healing-centered leadership asks us to notice before we act, to observe before we assume, and to engage before we evaluate.
Building community as a leader means:
✨ Leading with presence instead of performance.
✨ Asking more questions than we answer.
✨ Allowing others to bring their gifts to the table rather than centering our own.
Neuroscience calls this social attunement, the ability to sense, mirror, and respond to the emotional energy of a group. Leaders who practice this deepen psychological safety and inspire collective creativity.
✨ Practices for Rooting and Reconnecting
Here are gentle practices to help you build belonging wherever you are:
✨ Practice Place Awareness: Spend five minutes each day observing your environment. What do you notice, hear, or feel that reminds you you are part of something larger?
✨ Host a Connection Ritual: Invite a few neighbors, colleagues, or friends for a shared meal or storytelling night. Connection and belonging grow through shared presence, not perfection.
✨ Map Your Circle of Care: List five people who nourish you. Then, name five you can intentionally nurture this month. (Repeat monthly to create a rhythm)
✨ Lead with Welcome: In your team or community space, begin meetings with “check-in rounds” to honor every voice.
✨ Stay Curious: When meeting someone new, ask about their story before sharing yours. Curiosity builds bridges faster than assumptions ever can.
Each act of connection signals safety to the brain and reminds us that belonging is built, not given.
🌸 The Invitation
Rooting in new soil is not about replicating what we had before; it is about cultivating what wants to grow now. It requires patience, openness, and love that endures discomfort.
Beloved Community begins with the simple choice to keep showing up with our full selves and our full hearts. When we lead with love, we transform any place into a place of belonging.
Wherever you are planted this season, trust that the soil beneath you is ready for roots.
💛 With presence and possibility,
Your Curious Cultural Architect
