15 Funny Facts about Love

Love is a many-splendored thing … and a very surprising thing, too. Here are15 funny little facts about love that I found interesting. Read them, scratch your head over them, and share them with someone you fancy.

1. Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than those who don’t.

2. People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)

3. Two-thirds of people report that they fall in love with someone they’ve known for some time vs. someone that they just met.

4. There’s a reason why office romances occur: The single biggest predictor of love is proximity.

5. Falling in love can induce a calming effect on the body and mind and raises levels of nerve growth factor for about a year, which helps to restore the nervous system and improves the lover’s memory.

6. Love can also exert the same stress on your body as deep fear. You see the same physiological responses — pupil dilation, sweaty palms, and increased heart rate.

7. Brain scans show that people who view photos of a beloved experience an activation of the caudate — the part of the brain involving cravings.

8. Eleven percent of women have gone online and done research on a person they were dating or were about to meet, versus seven percent of men.

9. Couples’ personalities converge over time to make partners more and more similar.

10. The tradition of the diamond engagement ring comes from Archduke Maximillian of Austria who, in the 15th century, gave a diamond ring to his fiancée, Mary of Burgundy.

11. Forty-three percent of women prefer their partners never sign “love” to a card unless they are ready for commitment.

12. People who are newly in love produce decreased levels of the hormone serotonin — as low as levels seen in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to feel obsessed when you’re smitten.

13. According to mathematical theory, we should date a dozen people before choosing a long-term partner; that provides the best chance that you’ll make a love match.

14. Familiarity breeds comfort and closeness … and romance.

15. OK, this one may not surprise you, but I had to share it: Having a romantic relationship makes both genders happier. The stronger the commitment, the greater the happiness!

Love Yourself

 

We spend so much of our time waiting to be loved, hoping love will find us, searching, yearning for that special love and feeling empty and lost without it. Wanting someone to give us love and fill us up. Unfortunately, that’s not usually how life works. You will draw to you exactly what you create in life, and what you believe you are worthy of. So loving yourself can create love in your life. When you expect love from an external source and someone or something does not fulfill your void and fantasy’s, then you will feel worse than before.

Oscar Wilde once stated, “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” Love is a mystery and not easily definable. However, it does have certain characteristics. Self-love is a consuming passion for your own happiness. It is an ongoing choice you make to be glad to alive, here on Earth, in your own body.

Self-love occurs when you decide who you are and what you want is important. It is an inner state of being which develops as you decide it is all right to build a kind, sensuous, and meaningful partnership with yourself. Self-love involves deciding to connect with your dreams and then supporting yourself with encouraging thoughts and empowering self-supportive actions.

Increasing your love of self involves an intention to become more self-loving and then following up this intention with reinforcing actions. An intention involves a conscious decision to be happier and more fulfilled in your own life. You make a new decision to be alive . . . and then accept personal responsibility to make your life a better, more enjoyable experience. It may take considerable effort to pry yourself out of a life that feels less than joyful, but it is entirely possible to have the kind of life you want for yourself. Below are some practical ideas of how to begin expanding your love of self:

Acknowledge and verbally praise yourself.
• Have fun more often.
• Learn new ways to relax and release tension.
• Practice conscious, deep, full-bodied breathing several times each day.
• Think inspiring thoughts.
• Instead of always focusing on the problem, decide to focus on desired outcomes.
• Fill your life with beauty, such as times of silence, beautiful music, flowers.
• Raise your confidence by taking daily small, achievable actions steps that support your goal.
• Acknowledge your efforts and your successes.
• Reward yourself daily.
• Listen to your intuition and then follow it.
• Let yourself succeed.
• Nurture yourself by imagining desired outcomes to life’s situations.
• Offer yourself affection in many, many different ways.
• Choose to think thoughts that bring inner peace (rather than worry).
• Remember and feel gratitude.

If you do not love and value yourself, no one in your life will ever provide the love you are seeking. Regard your life as valuable and important. Every individual has a unique message to deliver to others as part of God’s divine plan for each life. Learn to develop and strengthen your spiritual muscles so your view of you is the way our Heavenly Father looks at us.

Love is in the Air

 

It’s that time of the year when you can simply feel love in the air. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner.

It’s a wonderful time to celebrate “LOVE.” Whether you are single or in a relationship you can celebrate love.  When you give love, you receive more love in your life. Show love to your co-workers, friends, family and even strangers. Showing love will foster a spirit of love in the atmosphere and a feeling of bliss inside you.

Say it. When you say the words “I Love You”, they should carry with them the desire to show someone that you love them, not what you simply want to feel. When you say it, make sure you really mean it and are willing to do anything for that special person.

Empathize. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Rather than impose your own expectations or attempt to control them, to understand how they feel, where they come from, and who they are. Realize how they could also love you back just as well.

Love unconditionally. If you cannot love another person without attaching stipulations, then it is not love at all, but deep-seated opportunism (one who makes the most of an advantage, often unmindful of others). If your interest is not in the other person as such, but rather in how that person can enhance your experience of life, then it is not unconditional. If you have no intention of improving that person’s life, or allowing that person to be themselves and accepting them as they are, and not who you want them to be, then you are not striving to love them unconditionally.

Expect nothing in return. That doesn’t mean you should allow someone to mistreat or undervalue you. It means that giving love does not guarantee receiving love. Try loving just for the sake of love. Realize that someone may have a different way of showing his or her love for you; do not expect to be loved back in exactly the same way.

Realize it can be lost. If you realize that you can lose the one you love, then you have a greater appreciation of what you have. Think how blessed you are to have someone to love. Don’t make an idol of the person you love. This will place them under undue pressure and will likely result in you losing them.

Never stop loving. Even if you have been hurt before you should not stop giving love.

During this season of love, remind yourself of the importance of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 God instructs us to abide in faith, hope and love, but that love is the greatest of the three.

Make it a point to go out of your way to show love! It is the greatest gift you can give away.