The word “love” is as familiar today as it was when Jesus was on the earth. It’s something that everyone expresses in some form or another, whether we mean romantic love, familial love, friendly love, or the bond of family love. Love encompasses an incredible range of positive and negative emotional and psychological states, from an inner feeling of adoration for a parent’s kindness, the greatest personal good luck, the highest religious devotion, to the best physical intimacy. We experience love when we are happy, sad, scared, tired, joyful, anxious, pained, betrayed, or even bored!
Love is often described as our primary relationship language; used to describe intimate relationships. When you’re happy, you express your feelings by focusing on how good you feel; when you’re angry, you express it with a combination of verbal aggression and deeds. Expressing love requires a lot of energy and words. It is one of the foundations of human relationships, and without which relationships break down into unfathomable turmoil.
One important way to think about love is to think of it as a kind of spiritual language – a language that can be understood by both human beings and non-human animals, and used for the intention and satisfaction of their purposes. The classic example of this is a mother feeding her child with milk or honey. In ancient Greece and Rome, the bond between mother and child was respected, and a bond existed between persons and their gods. In other cultures, love may be expressed more explicitly. A mother may pat or hug her child lovingly, a brother may hold his sister, or a friend may take a small child for a ride.
Humans are social creatures; and the primary basis for relationships with others is the desire to belong and interact with others. Love can explain the phenomenon of affiliation, as well as bonding and companionship. Children tend to be very attached to their parents, and if they feel loved and cared for, they will willingly return the love and attention they receive. In adults, positive emotions as well as outward gestures of affection help a person to forge new and positive relationships and to feel deeply connected to others.
- Love has also been identified as having positive physiological effects on the body.
- Increased levels of endorphins, which cause a feeling of well-being and relaxation, have been found to be associated with increased levels of happiness and well-being in humans, and these feelings become more pronounced when one another is in a romantic relationship.
- In fact, there is some evidence that being in a romantic relationship may be one of the best ways to find heightened physical feelings.
- Being with another person generates feelings of sexual attachment, as well as compassion, which can heighten the moods of those who experience them.
- In addition, being in a relationship with another person can actually lead to greater levels of health and well-being.
- Having a partner to share life with is a great means to develop healthy relationship skills, and sharing intimate physical activities can promote emotional bonding and, in turn, promotes overall mental, emotional, and physical health.
Although there are many forms of love and intimacy that people engage in; some of the most common include physical intimacy, casual dating, infatuation, online relationships, friendship, parental care, marriage, and dating. These different relationships often involve intense feelings of liking someone and being intensely attached to that person. Although these relationships do not necessarily need to involve sexual intimacy to be meaningful, they often involve an emotional bond, a form of love, and an inner need to be cared for and protected by another person.