Is it chemistry? Or Biology? Or Culture?

Love is a feeling of great commitment and devotion that one can feel- often very strongly. It could be a devotion to another person, or an abstract principle or even a place or an inanimate object.

Usually when you love another person, you would be referring to a feeling that conveys more than merely liking this person. Love, especially the romantic love tends to overtake one's mind and time.

Filial love tends to be a strong sense of bonding and is definitely associated with chemical changes in the body. Oxytocin levels are at their highest in new mothers and lovers discovering themselves.

In the very beginning, there is only an increase of the estrogen and testosterone levels. This translates into a feeling that promotes attention to an object of attraction- promotes, infact an instinct to mate.

Other chemicals associated with the feeling of intense attraction are dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. These chemicals stimulate the pleasure centre of the brain. This directly explains the observed effects of loss of appetite, loss of attention to the surroundings, sleeplessness and intense excitement. This is the first stage of attraction and may last as little as a year or two.


This is however, a very chemical analysis of that warm fuzzy feeling we all call love.

Chemistry explains why we feel our heart fluttering, we feel the need to connect at a very primal level. However, the lasting relationships we form are more psychological than chemical. We would like to relate to another, find a confidante who can serve to hold us in moments of need and weakness, who can offer that shoulder to cry on and finally to feel the feeling that allows us to help another reach his spiritual potential. That is true love... allow another achieve their spiritual potential.

Love , thus is not simply a feeling, but an activity that is an ongoing source of contentment in a life well lived.