We wish we had a better understanding of practicing this thing called love.
Yet, I know if I can make you smile, I can make you happy. If I can make you frown, I can make you sad. Emotion, in this sense, goes outside-in.
If we think about emotion in this way--as outside-in, not inside-out, it is possible to understand how some people can have an enormous amount of influence over others. Some of us are very good at expressing emotions and feelings, which means that those people are far more emotionally contagious than the rest of us.
Loving contact can improve health according to researchers at the University of North Carolina who completed a study focusing on the physiological effects of physical contact.
Married or long-term partner volunteers held hands while watching a pleasant ten-minute video followed by a twenty-second hug. A control group rested calmly without partners. Both groups were then asked to discuss something stressful that had recently caused them to be upset or angry.
People in the control group experienced twice the rise in blood pressure and an increase of heart rate by ten beats per minute compared to the "huggers."
Have you ever had a 3 year-old run up to you and give you a hug? If so, you know that children offer us a priceless gift--a reminder that loving and being loved matter more than anything.
Mother Teresa once said, "Joy is a net of love by which you catch souls." When we think about what made us happy as a child, we weave the net of love. We remember how easy it was to find joy in every day--riding a bike fast down a hill or jumping into a pile of leaves.
Whatever things bring you that kind of joy today, seek out those experiences. Invite a friend to share the joy and enjoy the connection that the smiles and laughter bring to fill your heart with happiness.
Click for What is Love?, Test for Love, and the Law of Love.