To Love and be Loved

To  Love and be Loved

World of Healing

Feeling loved and cared for is also an important factor in happiness. For many people, having a healthy, nurturing relationship is a significant determinant of their happiness. The need to love and care for others is just as strong as the need to be loved and cared for. It's a hard-wired, deeply felt need.

I think that if you wish to live a truly happy life, it is more important to have love than a lot of money. Having the love of someone is very important, because we humans are very sociable, and it is very important to have close relationships with people you can always turn to.

We are aware of the importance of love and nurturing particularly in early childhood – those first few years affect the rest of our lives.

One of our friends we had in England travelled to Romania each summer to spend time helping children in the orphanages. The experience saddened and angered her – to see these poor children and the way they were largely neglected and devoid of touch and love moved her to tears.

Studies have shown that having followed through with what happened the latest results come from the children's 8-year-old checkup, which included brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG); while MRI reveals brain structure, EEG shows electrical brain activity.

They found that early institutionalization changed both the structure and the function of the brain. Any time spent in an institution shrunk the volume of gray matter, or brain cell bodies, in the brain. Those children who stayed in the orphanages instead of going to foster care also had less white matter, or the fat-covered tracts between brain cell bodies, than those who, at a young age, moved in with families.

Staying in an orphanage instead of foster care also resulted in lower-quality brain activity as measured by EEG. Teachers indicated these same kids were also worse off socially.

Part of the difference in the children’s behavior appeared to be explained by how warmly and securely bonded they were to their main caregiver, the researchers report this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (In fact, past research has shown children of nurturing mothers had hippocampus volumes 10 percent larger than children whose mothers were not as nurturing.)

In our own lives, we know that situational variables can exert powerful influences over human behavior, more than what we recognize or acknowledge. Without love, money loses value. Love is more important than money. You work to provide for yourself and your family. Without love, there is little to inspire you to work harder or to have nicer things. There is also no one to whom you can leave the things you have worked hard for in life, and you can’t take them with you when you pass away. I think that if you wish to live a truly happy life, it is more important to have love than a lot of money. Having the love of someone is very important, because humans are very sociable, and it is very important to have close relationships with people you can always turn to and confide in.

Being in a healthy, two-way, loving relationship is an incredible feeling, and is one of the pinnacles of the brief existence that is our life. And make no mistake, it is a feeling, a state of being, one most definitely worth striving for.

Make to most of YOUR Valentine’s Day!

Remember – “Nothing can dim the light that shines within”

With Love & Light,
Roger