Beyond Senior Living: Love has the power to heal us

I was reading in the livfun Spring 2012 edition an article Your Life Well Lived written by Nancy Gertz.  "Speak to me of Love..."

The following is directly from my reading:

The positive emotional and physical benefits we experience with love transcend all ages, yet as we get older, our stress outlets diminish while our stresses increase.  Many face loneliness and/or isolation, displacement, loss of physical capacity, grief, impairment, serious diagnoses, and more.  The older a body becomes, the less it is equipped to regulate and respond to stress.  Yet studies show that health improvement and longevity are associated with being loving to oneself, family, friends, pets and the larger world. 

By bringing our thoughts to positive memories, reaching a hand out to someone in need, petting an endearing animal, sharing a love story, or focusing intently on the love we feel for the special people in our lives, we offset the power of stress, and replace it with the enlivening antidote of love.  This is only the beginning, as the upward spiral of more good feelings begins to spin, generating more positive feelings and experiences. 

 Earlier in the article Nancy states:

As I write this, with a simple trigger of positive memories, I am changing my mindset and in synchrony, stimulating a change in my biochemistry.  Emotional surges of love trigger a chain of biochemical reactions that lower blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and adrenaline levels.   Hormones and peptides are released to counteract the body's irritable and inflammatory response to stress, and certain circuits in the brain are activated while others are calmed (Eva M. Selhub, 2009). 

Love has the power to make us feel much better, alleviate pain, and even heal what ails us.

To see more of Nancy's work on Health and Wellness you can find her on LinkedIn