Understanding Your Passion For Love
Are you in love? This is an age-old question, but one with some new answers thanks to newly available information. In recent years many couples have come to realize that they are not in love with each other; rather they are just in “feelings” of love. To move beyond feelings into deeper emotions, we must go through the process of reconnecting with our inner knowingness of the divine love for all beings. When we become aware of this divine connection we will realize that love is not a feeling; it is an intuitive knowing which has its source in the heart of a limitless Being.
Love encompasses a wide range of positive and strong emotions, from pure affection or attachment, to the strongest intimate relationship, the most intense personal spiritual practice, to the easiest recreational joy. It includes all the different kinds of happiness that human beings feel, including personal, professional, social, spiritual, and physical well-being. All of these different kinds of well-being depend on our ability to feel love for another person and for our own self. We need to learn how to give love unconditionally, and also learn to receive love from another person and from our environment. If we practice connecting with our inner knowingness of the divine will for love, then we will experience all of the healthy types of love that we are capable of feeling at any given time.
Our feelings for another person can range from being mildly attracted, or else being passionately attracted, or else being deeply impressed with them, or even being fascinated. A few of these feelings can translate into romantic feelings, while others may be more like fond memories of an event that just occurred. Sometimes our feelings for someone bring us great delight and joy, and sometimes these feelings are negative, such as anger or sadness. Although everyone is different, however, generally we have a small set of core feelings, which we react to with various emotions that depend largely on the experience and context of the relationship. In the short-term, our responses to these core feelings tend to build up over time, and then we have these strong reactions when we feel love from someone else.
However, our response to our core feelings can change as well. When our partner does something that upsets us, and causes us to experience distress in the short-term, these feelings may subside and may dissipate as quickly as they came. However, over time these feelings can transform into feelings of resentment, and then into feelings of hatred. Unconditional love, however, does not simply disappear when your partner hurts you. You must, instead, put effort into learning to love your partner more, in the same way that you would expect your partner to love you in return. A happy and healthy relationship means that each partner feels loved more than unloved, and this love can fuel and grow into feelings of more intense love in the long-term.
A relationship that has been nurtured with love and affection is one in which you both experience deep satisfaction with your partner. It is also one in which you both share equally in your life’s experiences and joy. This type of emotional connection is what is known as being “in tune” with your partner. When you are in tune with your partner you share deep feelings, instead of fighting each other over trivialities and differences. By tuning into each other you will be able to appreciate the beauty of being in love, and in turn experience a higher level of romantic love.
The science of romantic love actually pinpointed where in the brain these passionate feelings reside. Specifically, it identified two brain regions that lit up when you are experiencing these feelings. These brain regions include the “amygdala” and the “prefrontal cortex”. The amygdala is located directly in the center of the brain. This section of the brain is where your “fear response” happens… when you are threatened, or you become angry. Once these two regions are activated, this enables you to experience these feelings of passion and romance.