The case for choosing, instead.
Love is one of our most powerful and least understood emotions — especially in the romantic sense. It can hit us without warning. Love can co-exist with conflicting emotions, like anger, annoyance and sadness. Meaning we can be extremely upset with someone, they can hurt us, we can even want nothing more to do with them and yet, somehow, still love them. People exhibit over-the-top, out of character behavior, all in the name of love.
Love is real. So real that a biological anthropologist studied 166 societies and found evidence of formidable, blissful, romantic love in 147 of them. This indicates to many medical professionals that romantic love is an essential element of our biological nature.
Our bodies exhibit scientifically-proven physical reactions to the feeling, such as flushed cheeks, a racing heart beat and sweaty palms. There are also chemical responses happening within us that signify love may be in the air, including the release of Dopamine, Norepinephrine (otherwise known as adrenalin) and Serotonin — the chemical which when low can lead to depression. Research shows that love gives us a sense of happiness! And excitement. It is the ultimate feel-good drug.
Because of these reactions, we believe that who we choose as a partner is at the mercy of our subconscious biochemistry. We…