An article I saw written by an MD. I edited it slightly for tzniyus purposes but the point that I edited out was that in one's marriage it is important to show a lot of love. והמבין יבין.
Love Heals
The heart of the matter is that it is the heart that matters. A healthy heart is a happy heart. To achieve optimal heart health, your emotional and spiritual heart is just as important as your physical heart, and care must be given to all aspects of this vital organ.
Every thought causes an instant flow of emotions by neuropeptides and hormones that compose a symphony of positive and negative effects within the body. That is why it is so important to pay close attention to the thoughts and emotions that are running through your mind, as they dictate the symphony of neurotransmitters playing in your body.
Love helps heal the heart and nourish your mind, body, and soul. Love is a strong emotion, representing human kindness, compassion, and deep affection. Love is pure. Love is self-directed and directed toward others. Most importantly, love is a vital component for your overall health and happiness.
How Does Love Benefits Your Health?
Love helps boost self-esteem, which leads to better self-care and happiness. Self-love is important because when you love yourself, you are much more likely to engage in activities that contribute to better nutrition and physical fitness, and less likely to make unhealthy lifestyle choices.
Love makes you happy. Love causes the production of norepinephrine and dopamine (both hormones associated with adrenaline), which leads to increased feelings of joy and pleasure.
Love counteracts the fight-or-flight response and helps reduce stress. Even low levels of stress cause the body to release cortisol, which is associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and depression. Love can help lower the production of cortisol hormone. In fact, love encourages your body to produce oxytocin, the “feel-good” or “love” hormone. Oxytocin can reduce overall stress and improve the immune system, which in turn decreases cell death and inflammation.
Love decreases anxiety and staves off depression, which then reduces the risks and signs of heart disease. Dr. Dean Ornish’s book Love and Survival: Eight Pathways to Intimacy and Health describes one study where where married men who suffered from angina (chest pains) experienced far less angina if they felt loved by their wives, even despite high risk factors like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Love improves your immune system, decreases inflammation, and can be a powerful pain reliever.
Love allows you feel well-connected with the body which can help increased release of cytokines, better relaxation and the release of endorphins.
Love helps you sleep better. Sleeping next to someone you love makes you feel more relaxed, which helps you to sleep better. Adequate rest is vital to heart health and overall well-being, as much of the reparative work of the body is done during sleep.
It is important to remind yourself every day that there is so much more to love than just romantic love. There is love of life, love of nature, love of animals, love of others, and love of self, and all of these acts of love provide amazing health benefits.
How to Incorporate Love into Your Life:
Be more loving and giving. Bring happiness and joy into your life and other people’s lives. Be generous with your time and money. Try to do one random act of kindness today, even if it is as simple as smiling at someone.
Hug and holding hands. Physical contact has a loving and nurturing ability to instantly improve your mood, reduce levels of stress and put you at ease. Try to hug at least one person you love every day.
Love your life and be grateful. Bring more joy into your life each day. Flirt with life… laugh, dance, sing. Laugh.
Love yourself and be kind to yourself every day. Treat yourself like you would another person who you are truly in love with. The more you love yourself, the better prepared you will be to love others. And the more love you give, the more you will receive.
