Love at first sight is a common saying for those who want to explain their feelings about their partner in a nutshell. It is a way of summing up the physical and emotional attraction two people have for each other within their first meeting. Love is an extremely strong emotion, sometimes beyond human control. And when you are truly in love you will know it. There have been psychological and scientifically engaging studies about the love at first sight theory. Does it really exist? Or is it just lust and sexual attraction that gives you those butterflies inside?
We've been fed romanticized stories of finding your soulmate, but what does that really mean?
Ahh, soulmates. We’ve all been fed the romantic notion that there’s one perfect someone out there for us. Everyone has one perfect soulmate, and if we’re lucky, we’ll find each other and live happily ever after. The stars will align for us: we’ll be born at the same time (give or take a few or twenty years) and after living our lives a little, we’ll magically end up in the same part of the world at exactly the right time to fall head over heels in love. We’ll know instantly when we meet.
What matters most when it comes to instant connection and long-term love?
Does love at first sight exist? What draws us to one person over another? What is the key to attraction and making it last long-term? Questions, questions, questions. We're in search of answers.
Scientific findings reveal that people do actually fall in love at first sight, kind of.
If you're convinced that science only confirms the obvious, we've got some mind-boggling news for you. According to research conducted by Dr. Stephanie Ortigue, a professor at Syracuse University, love actually does occur at first sight, and it happens within a fifth of a second.
Love can be both a noun and a verb, but is one way of falling in love better than another?
When enmeshed in the search for love, it can be difficult to determine whether it should be something we find or something that we decide to do. Many people experience the romantic love story. But a lot of couples find love to be something more learned and practiced. For people who are still hunting, it's difficult to decide whether to view it as a noun or a verb.
Louise Rafkin has been interviewing couples and telling their love stories in a weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle for the past couple years. As someone who is still searching for the one, she pondered the question of love and how to attain it in Modern Love in the New York Times.
The beauty of personals on Craigslist is the price: personals are a free for all—in terms of both cost and sincerity. Like most other Craigslist-ings, you truly have nothing to lose by listing or browsing. Your identity—including your e-mail address, which is anonymized—is totally concealable. Only a small percentage of listings include photos, which can be a blessing for the modest, only-personality-matters seeking sort, and a curse for those who can admit they care about looks and online credibility.
Former flight attendant and author Ann Hood recounts the time she met her first adult love on a flight to New York: A guy—the guy—showed me his boarding pass, looked into my eyes ... and I swear it was love at first sight. The real thing: My palms got sweaty, my heart did a triple axel, and I had to fight the urge to jump into his vintage-shirted arms. Instead, I made a mental note of his seat number, 47F, and after takeoff, planted myself at that end of the airplane.
