Periagoge
Concept
1 min read

Devotion as Resistance to Numbness

Mirabai's radical love practice as an antidote to the emotional dissociation that prevents us from feeling—and therefore responding to—civilizational decline.

Mira
Why It Matters

Mirabai's devotional poetry emerged from a refusal to accept the prescribed roles and silences of her time. She loved Krishna with such intensity that convention could not contain her. In anticipatory grief for civilization, we face a parallel numbness: the overwhelming scale of collapse can trigger dissociation, cynicism, or learned helplessness. Devotion, in Mirabai's sense, is the deliberate cultivation of feeling—the willingness to love what is being lost before it vanishes. This is not sentimental attachment but a fierce, embodied recognition of value. By practicing devotion to specific places, communities, and futures worth grieving, we resist the anaesthesia of catastrophe. We stay awake to what matters. This keeps anticipatory grief from calcifying into despair, instead transforming it into a force that moves us toward care and resistance.

Helpful guides
Mira
Love & Relationships
Peri
Questions about Devotion as Resistance to Numbness?

Peri can explain this concept, give practical examples, help you decide whether it applies to your situation, or recommend a journey if appropriate.

Ready to work on Devotion as Resistance to Numbness?

Explore related journeys or tell Peri what you're working through.