Claudian's Corner

Love at First Sight. Perhaps, it is the most romantic thing that can happen to anyone. It makes people lose their heart and mind within a matter of several seconds. Love is a very strong emotion which, sometimes, is even impossible to control. Love at first sight can happen anywhere, anytime - in a subway, while walking on a street, or seeing a beautiful face from across the room ...

People who haven't experienced love at first sight themselves, probably don't believe that it can be real. There are many skeptics who say it is just passion or lust that attract people to each other, and refuse to believe that one can really fall in love with another person at the first moment their eyes meet.

And do you believe in love at first sight? Some scientists after studying human brain activity noted that it is quiet possible, but everyone is free to believe or not to believe. There are people who really experienced this wonderful moment. They say that as soon they have raised their head and met those eyes, they instantly knew that they were looking at the person of their dreams.

Psychologists say that love at first sight depends on our psychological state at the very moment. Sometimes we will not even notice those charming eyes, and other times they can deeply impress us. Also they say we need approximately 30 seconds to fall in love or, to be more precise, to establish whether the person is attractive, and a potential mate. By the way psychologists claim that men fall in love first.

"The study gets at the basic perceptual aspects in mating," said psychologist Jon Maner of Florida State University, who decided to find out how people react on strangers they have never met before. "It shows how quickly, strongly and automatically people are attuned to physical attractiveness whether looking for mates or guarding their mates from potential rivals," he added in an interview.

In the study university students were shown pictures of very attractive or average-looking people for just one minute, and after that they were asked to look at other things. The reaction time of the participants was measured, after what the psychologists were able to determine that half a minute was enough for students to decide if someone is attractive. The researchers also noticed that people fixated on attractive faces for half a minute longer after the one minute time limit.

"These are the kind of people we might prefer as romantic partners, but it doesn't mean we'd be able to have a relationship with them because highly-attractive people are very sought after," said Maner.

A lot of factors play role in the situation of falling in love from the first sight. When you fall in love at the first sight you are usually ready and willing to do so. There is less chance that it will occur when you are tired, depressed or your head is exploding with problems. The main part in falling in love is given to the physical appearance, voice, gestures and smell. One person intuitively searches in the other the qualities and the features he likes and enjoys the best. It is a known fact, that beautiful people attract attention the most, but sometimes it is wrong to fall in love with them right away, because those people are most probably spoiled by attention from others as well, and, therefore, might not even notice you, or simply leave without attention.

So how is it possible to understand if what happened to you is love at first sight?

1. First of all, try to understand what is the first thing that got into your mind when you saw a person. If the first thought is physical, then it probably is not love. But if you are excited and overwhelmed by a desire to get to know the person better and take things slowly so they work out for you, then it might be a good sign for a deeper relationship.

2. A person's attractive physical qualities are something that anyone can see and appreciate, but when you really fall in love with someone, it means that you will not appreciate and notice only his/her physical appearance, but also will notice other qualities that no one else can see. If you are able to notice such features, but your friends, for example, are not, then it is another good sign that you might be falling in love.

3. Falling in love with someone means wanting to know everything about that person, from their likes and dislikes to their life experiences. Just have patience to learn about them slowly, be understanding and supportive, and at the end, everything will work out for you in a best way.

Still, the cases when people really had fallen in love from the first sight and lived a long and happy life after are very rare. People may dream of a beautiful stranger that waits for them just around the corner, and sometimes it takes patience and time to find a real love. People must understand that this kind of things do happen, but not as often as they would like them to. And if out of nowhere you just suddenly start feeling the growing wings behind your back, still try to keep your feet on the ground because if it is really a deep and true feeling, nothing will ever happen to it, but if it is just your illusions that you accept and see as a reality, then disappointment from falling back on the ground can be very, very painful.