What is love at first sight?

Have you ever had the strange feeling that your heart was racing when you saw a person in a train station, for example? It is a magical moment in which we are intoxicated by a sensation that is difficult to describe. There are people who notice butterflies in the stomach. It may be that we are facing a fleeting love.

And that the person in front of you is a complete stranger. The love at first sight or crush describes this moment, and the scientific community and academics do not agree to say whether this phenomenon really exists or is rather an illusion. Be that as it may, many people report having felt this, even several times a day.

But, What psychological mechanisms are behind romantic crushes?

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What characterizes love at first sight or crush?

Well, above all, what its own name indicates: it is a love at first sight, a crush. When a friend introduces us to a person who attracts us instantly, or we run into someone at the bus station and we quickly feel that we should know him as he is. It can also happen in a fleeting exchange of glances in a music bar... at any moment the romantic crush can occur.

Despite the fact that many people confuse it, a love at first sight is not exactly a platonic love. They may have some small points in common, but Plato's romantic idea refers to a perfect idea of ​​love, not necessarily unrequited, which exceeds the limits of the carnal and entails enormous difficulty.

The idea of ​​platonic love may have a connection with that of love at first sight in the fact that it seems extremely complicated for two people who have just met to end up consuming their passion. However, the idea of Plato he alluded to an absolutely pure and disinterested love, in which nothing in the material world had any weight, and in which the intellectual and moral aspects are the basis of common sentiment.

In other words, Romantic love is not based on the mere attraction of one individual to another, this love is centered on goodness and something more spiritual.

Physical signs of love at first sight

It is public and notorious that when we feel a love crush, our body secretes a hormone called oxytocin that makes us more sensitive, compassionate and a state of exaltation of emotions occurs to us.

Besides this, There are several signs and signals that can help you identify if you have fallen in love at first sight..

• Body sweat. Especially if you are close to the desired person, you feel your body temperature rise, your hands sweat, you blush and, consequently, a warmth is forged within you. This can lead to you feeling a bit more insecure than usual, or perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the situation.
• Nervousness. You may get a bit blocked when talking, words may not come out, and you may not show yourself as fluent as you would be in a more everyday situation. It is even possible that it is difficult for you to spin the sentences and even say something without much sense. It may be that this happens because you are trying to impress the person you like and, by overthinking your words, the result is the opposite of what you want.
• Blood pressure rise. In relation to the other two points that we have already described, another characteristic point of crush or love at first sight is that blood pressure shoots up. It's like an injection of adrenalin for having met someone you like so much.
• If for any reason you don't get to talk to himWhen you get home you will constantly think: what is the name of that woman and man with whom I have run into? Why haven't I had the courage to go talk to him or her? Will I ever cross paths with this person again?
• After several days thinking about the same thing, you begin to feel something "silly", because that love at first sight may be nothing more than an attraction to someone you don't you know, and authentic love is born when you connect with a person not only on a physical level, but also emotional. You may realize at that point that it was not worth obsessing over.

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More about love and infatuation

Science and psychology continue to investigate the field of love and the feelings that the brain provokes in people, as many of the chemical and neural reactions that cause this disease are unknown. behaviour.

In the article "The chemistry of love, a very powerful drug", the psychologist Jonathan Garcia-Allen explains how our body and mind process love.

Also, if you want to know some curiosities about love and falling in love, we invite you to read the post "Love and infatuation: 7 surprising discoveries".