True Love is Passion Rooted in Friendship
By Jason Whiting
Courtesy of the Institue for Family Studies
Imagine you see a beautiful bouquet of roses. They are striking, taking your breath away. You draw closer, and with each fine detail of color, fragrance, and texture you become more enchanted. Not caring about the price, they become yours. Your happiness is real, but after bringing them home, you get distracted by a pile of work, dirty dishes, and Instagram alerts calling your name. Instead of trimming, watering, and placing the bouquet in a vase, you leave them on the counter. By the time you remember them, they are wilted, limp, and unattractive. How did your powerful infatuation sag into complacency?
Romantic love is more intoxicating than the rich beauty of roses. In a fifth-of-a-second glance at a potential mate, the brain feels a thrill. A neurological cocktail of adrenaline, dopamine, and oxytocin floods the head and lights up the eyes. It is powerful and exciting, and makes us act with abandon, as it did for one giddy fifth grader whose love note (names changed) went viral:
Dear Lexi. Your eyes remind me of the evening sky. My heart felt like broken glass until I saw you, and […]
Sandy Bober shares her personal testimony about being raped in college, her infection with an STD and her struggles and ultimate victory to regain her self-esteem, healthy relationships and a successful marriage.
Here at Love Smarts, we would like to share helpful information including personal stories of relationship successes and failures, insights from psychology and human experience about what leads to lasting love relationships.
We look forward to hearing from YOU which articles were meaningful and also about what you have learned from your own life experience, whether that was a top-of-the mountain joy or a relationship disaster!
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As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association
October 20, 1999- Vol.282, No. 15, 1405-1407.
Implant 2.4%
Pill 9%
Diaphragm & cervical cap 13%
Male Condom 15%
Withdrawal 26%
Spermicides 28%
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