Love - (n.) An intense feeling of deep affection.

Our minds are continually evolving as the abundance of certain neurotransmitters rises and falls relentlessly.  Sometimes I get into a great mood and wish that I could live the rest of my life in that particular mental state, usually when I’m slap-happy or in some state that would allow me to view everything with a sense of humor.  That would make everything so much more fun and easy.  Imagine the most stressful situations in which normally one would spiral into a state of hopelessness and frustration.  If only I could approach these situations with a lighthearted, positive mood every time.  Unfortunately, I’m often a slave to my brain chemistry and have to embrace situations through whatever state of mind I happen to be in.

 

One question that’s been on my mind lately is how much control over our own thoughts and states of mind do we have?  There is a neurotransmitter for every emotion humanly possible, therefore my reality at any given time is governed by the presence or absence of mere chemicals.  People alter these chemicals all the time via antidepressants, alcohol, drugs, even caffeine.  Maybe even love can be reduced to a molecular structure that passes from synapse to synapse in the three-pound mass of mush encased within the skull.

 

Oxytocin is a chemical found in mothers that encourages love and bonding between her and her children, so how is this any different?  It’s also interesting that neurologists have found an oxitocin deficiency in women who have been previously abused, thus affecting their ability to form loving relationships.  Well, this means that our experiences change our brain chemistry, which also changes our reality, etc.  This brings the battle of nature versus nurture to a tie, since both obviously have large influences on our personalities. For more on this see this article.

Oxytocin Model

The unexplainable thing remains, why do we fall in love with certain people, but are repulsed by others?  Maybe we are predisposed to certain characteristics that we find attractive, which release these love chemicals.  However, it is possible that we attract these characteristics to us and not the other way around.  I may find short, brown eyed, brown haired, intelligent guys attractive for some reason and can’t force my brain to release a love chemical when I come in contact with a 6’2”, blond guy with blue eyes.  In other words, my brain chemistry is attracting me to a certain per

son that I find physically and emotionally appealing.  This could also explain the mystery that some people are attracted to the opposite sex while others are drawn into the sinful pit of homosexuality (that was sarcasm), but that is a whole other blog.  Basically, I guess we attract ourselves to a certain brain chemistry in another personal that fits with our own like a jigsaw. 

And what about energy?  There is the idea that chemicals in the brain cause us to feel a certain way about someone but what about that feeling of energy that people give off.  It’s as if our two unique brains are creating an aura around us, like a bubble.  We even refer to it as “chemistry”, or “spark”.  I am not going to pretend I have anything figured out, but these are just questions stirring in my head.  Will we ever know what our reality would look like if we didn’t have these goofy emotions getting in the way of things?