Love is a beautiful thing and one of the ways we show just how much we care for our partner is through a kiss. There are more than a dozen different types of kisses and all of them mean different things. For example, a forehead kiss is a sweet way to show your partner that… Read more »
Relationships
How Means-Goals Relations Analysis Could Improve Your Relationship
Means-goals relations analysis is a method of looking at relationships based on how well the partners help each other to achieve their life goals. Each person is the means to the other’s goals. Relationships are analyzed according to goals theory, which basically states that: • means are assessed according to their instrumentality in reaching goals… Read more »
5 Principles of Supporting Each Other’s Goals That Could Affect Your Relationships
Means-goals relations, supporting each other’s goals, is a way of analyzing relationships based on how much each partner helps the other to achieve his or her goals. In this case, the partners are each other’s means to reaching their individual goals. Mutual perceived instrumentality, or a relationship in which each partner is instrumental in helping… Read more »
7 Essentials To Know About Forgiveness
Forgiving is never easy, and forgetting is even harder. Yet a lack of forgiveness can torpedo a relationship, drain your energy, and increase your tendency to build unhealthy emotional walls around yourself. True forgiveness soothes the mind and soul, builds bridges, and helps you move forward in an emotionally healthy way. Many people have a… Read more »
6 Common Reasons Why Relationships Fail
While some people are fiercely dedicated to the single life, human nature and evolutionary biology mean that the vast majority of people crave an intimate relationship. Yet sustaining those relationships is not easy. Roughly 40 percent of first marriages fail, while subsequent marriages are even less likely to succeed. The reasons are as varied as… Read more »
6 Scientifically Proven Facts About Love
Love is tough to narrow down. Poets write about it, philosophers discuss it, musicians sing about it, and most humans crave it, but actually defining love is complex. Once you have it, you will know it, but holding onto it is not always easy. Fortunately, science can help us define love, find it, and even… Read more »
7 Surprising Scientific Facts About Love and Attraction
Love and attraction are arguably the most confusing of all human emotions. Poets write about them, philosophers ponder them, and virtually all humans actively seek them. Self-help guides and magazines are filled with tips, tricks, and suggestions to help you find the right mate, but the advice can be conflicting. Love and attraction have been… Read more »
Is It Possible to Fall in Love at First Sight?
History is filled with examples of lovers who claim to have fallen in love at first sight. It might even have happened to you—seeing a mysterious, magnetic stranger across the room, you feel irresistibly drawn to that person. You might even be compelled to start a conversation that lasts all night. By morning, you are… Read more »
5 Signs You’re Dating a Narcissist
Narcissistic personality disorder, or NPD, is a psychiatric condition that can be both baffling and devastating to others. It is marked by grandiosity, a constant need to be the center of attention, and near-total self-absorption. When others fail to live up to their impossible demands, narcissists employ more than a few psychologically manipulative tricks to… Read more »
Gift Giving
Gift giving time is here. Maybe you’re thinking about a last-minute gift. Oh my. Scientists know a lot about giving gifts to grandma, your school chums, your office buddies, even your spouse. You can’t go wrong if you give them what they want. As it turns out, the thought’s not always the thing; it’s often… Read more »
6 Keys to Building a Healthy Relationship
Humans have a nearly irrepressible longing for meaningful connections with others. Romantic relationships are at the top of many people’s wish lists, yet it is easy to fall into unhealthy patterns of intense couplings followed by dramatic breakups. If you are ready to break that cycle and build a relationship that can last, you need… Read more »
Are Second Marriages Doomed?
A quick look at the statistics shows that the failure rate for second and subsequent marriages is quite high. While the divorce rate for first marriages is a shocking 40-50%, this number climbs dramatically after the first marriage, to nearly 75% in third marriages. This seems to indicate that marrying multiple times is fruitless, silly,… Read more »
Birth of your first child- CBS This Morning
Helen appeared on CBS This Morning with Charlie Rose to comment on a new study with surprising results: it concludes that the birth of a first child leads to depression more often than happiness! Helen has some interesting thoughts about why this finding might be true. Click here to watch (From August 12, 2015) Will birth… Read more »
Travel: Love is Everywhere- Helen on the Pamir Highway
Today, Lucy got an email message from Helen, quoted below. Helen has been away for over two weeks traveling on a vacation to Turkmenistan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and more– all those countries north of India and near Afghanistan. She went into the Pamir mountains on the Pamir Highway, which is exotic, but very rustic and even dangerous. Lucy was afraid… Read more »
3 Ways to Move on After a Divorce
A divorce is a massive psychological and emotional blow for anyone. No matter how difficult your marriage had become, whether or not you initiated the divorce process, it is normal to feel devastated. The person you expected to be your lifelong partner is gone, and your trust is shattered. You may feel isolated and alone,… Read more »
Can Romance Become A Long-term Love for You?
Falling in lust is easy. A biochemical, hormonal response to someone you feel drawn to, attraction is a powerful evolutionary drive. Intense passion, putting the other person on a pedestal, spending all of your time together…many people interpret these feelings and actions as love– and they are! It may just be early-stage, short-term love, though…. Read more »
Will You Ever Find Love?
The quest for romantic love is as old as the human race. In fact, some experts believe it is even older, as certain animals also exhibit strong bonding behaviors and even monogamy. Yet the irony of love is that the harder you look for it, the less likely you are to actually find it. While… Read more »
Is Monogamy Natural?
Searching for a life-long mate is an age-old quest. Monogamy may have been an early evolutionary adaptation, since those who lived in family units were in a better position to survive and multiply under harsh primitive conditions. Yet most people didn’t live that long, and “serial monogamy,” or a series of monogamous relationships, was the… Read more »
How to Find True Love
The quest for romantic love is one of the most primitive and powerful urges we have. More than a simple feeling or emotion, love is what the ancient Greeks called “the madness of the Gods.” Today, we know it as both a natural addiction and a physiological drive like hunger or thirst. With so much… Read more »
Love and Cooking!
When we are in love, we often like to cook with each other. We are creating something together, cooperating, engaging in an everyday-living task together. Early in the relationship, it is part of getting to know each other, like our food preferences, and it brings us into each others’ homes. The quiet anticipation of eating something… Read more »
One-Night Stands and Friends with Benefits
Helen Fisher, our co-founder, has written an article for Nautilus about romance and romantic love. You can read all of it here. She thinks dating behavior is changing, and that it is probably better for marriages. For singles in the USA, she sees a new long pre-commitment stage before marriage. Marriage is still desirable! The article… Read more »
20 Romantic Ideas for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day might be overly commercialized, but it remains an important time for couples to celebrate their love. Whether you are newly dating or have been married for years, the holiday is a great opportunity to reconnect and recharge your relationship’s batteries. Yet too many couples just go through the motions, grabbing something meaningless at… Read more »