Do you believe in love at first sight? Many people have varying degrees of acceptance when it comes to this kind of love because, quite frankly, it’s rather shallow. But what does one feel when they experience this? Matt Preston reveals the truth.
As cliché as love at first sight may sound, it’s truly an experience of a lifetime.
Falling in love in an instant
I remember the first time I experienced love at first sight.
I was in my eighth grade, just a little boy sitting in an audience, watching a theatrical play at an interschool competition.
I was mildly fascinated, look at all the new faces in the crowd, from different schools. As I scanned the full hall, my eyes saw a girl I had never seen before.
She was sitting a couple of seats to my left, and she was beautiful, divine.
Barely did I see her face for a few seconds and my world stopped for a moment, and everything blurred into oblivion, everything but her beautiful face.
A moment later, she turned towards me and looked back at me. Our eyes met and at that moment, in an instant beyond time frames, I came face to face with a new emotion.
It was overwhelming in all senses of the word.
My stomach jolted and twisted in coils and I wanted to throw up. My body heated up instantly like I was experiencing spontaneous human combustion, and I felt dizzy and numb.
But yet, with all these horrible emotions flowing through me, I felt deliriously happy. And I felt so light, like I could fly, no, like I could just turn into mist and poof!
When our eyes met
Our eyes met for what seemed like eternity, or perhaps just a second or two in reality, and I just had to look away. I don’t know why, but if I had stared any longer I would have thrown up [Read: The secret behind the first glance]. It was a perfect blend of ecstasy and fear. My adrenalin was pumping and my heart was beating so hard I could feel my tongue vibrating in sync.
Within moments, I realized I was addicted to her. I just had to look back at her and stare at that beautiful face. I couldn’t help thinking God must have been high when he created her. She was beyond an inspiration.
I kept glancing at her nervously, taking in as much of her as I could, but it was never enough. I was craving to see her face, like a man gasping for air at a high altitude. And every now and then, when our eyes met, I had a relapse of stomach jolts and intoxication. [Read: Law of attraction in love]
This happened back and forth for almost an hour, and with each passing minute, I was drawn deeper and deeper into this experience.
What happened next?
Well, love at first sight was a good start. But falling in love immediately also makes you lose your senses. I tried talking to her that day, but I was a nervous wreck.
She turned me down, and I never did see her ever again [Read: What to talk about on a date]. But that first memory of experiencing love was so intense that I can still visualize it like it happened just yesterday, even though that incident probably took place close to two decades ago. [Read: Short loves stories]
But now I know why I experienced such emotions and felt that way towards that girl. Frankly, it wasn’t my fault, because there’s more to love at first sight than meets the eye!
Evolution and love at first sight
Over the course of human evolution, we’ve progressed and evolved to become better at a few things that really matter. We’ve learnt to eat, procreate and survive.
And there are a lot of complex processes that subconsciously set things into motion when these three things that really matter enter the picture. When it comes to procreation, evolution has taught us how to fall in love, get sexually excited by someone, and desire someone passionately. [Read: The meaning of love]
Falling in love at first sight
All of us have created a subconscious mental image of our potential partner. When we walk into a room, without really realizing it, you’ll find yourself liking a few potential partners and not bothering with a few.
And at times, a potential partner whom you are attracted to may start warming up to you or get attracted to you too. So does love at first sight work? It most definitely does!
Science playing matchmaker
Not all of us fall in love within seconds. It has been seen in studies that men are more prone to falling in love immediately than women. It seems like men are more stimulated by visual appeal than women. On the other hand, women experience romantic chemistry a lot better than men. [Read: Chemistry in love]
What does that mean? Men know they like a woman the very second they see her. But in the case of women, they usually fall in love with someone after the first conversation.
Kissing secrets, body odor and love
Did you know that your first kiss can affect your chemistry in love too? Studies have shown that the exchange of saliva can also be a test for love. Every time you kiss, genes of major histocompatibility complex [MHC] get exchanged between two people, and if your genes share too many similarities, you might actually get turned off and lose the attraction, says Dr. Claus Wedekind at the University of Edinburg.
And it’s not just the kiss, your body odor too can predict whether you will experience love at first sight.
Subconsciously, all of us are drawn to certain scents in our partner’s bodies. Did you get a whiff of true love when you’re rubbing shoulders at a party? You’re definitely going to experience love at first sight that night.
Beyond the science of love
Leaving how science plays matchmaker apart, falling in love or experiencing love at first sight can be a beautiful sensation. While our pheromones, genes and body odors are hard at work in the background, all we experience in our mind are intense highs and delirious moments like a junkie high on coke.
Instead of worrying about whether it’s going to work out or not, leave the soothsaying questions to evolution. If both of you find yourselves getting attracted to each other when you meet for the first time, there’s a very good chance that evolution has handpicked a perfect match.
So watch out for this elusive kind of love. What follows may or may not be perfect, but that first flutter of butterflies in the stomach is truly something that makes falling in love at first sight one of the best experiences of a lifetime!
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I experienced the exact same thing in high school!!! You got me at the part where you talked about floating on air. He did something to me that I had never experienced from another human being. He was so gorgeous and perfect to me but I also liked him for who he was and his interests, what he stood for. But he was definitely my subconscious idea of a perfect man!
Thanks for publishing this. It really helped me come to terms with understanding something that no one around me could ever be of help with. He turned me down because i litterally could not talk when I spoke to him the first time! It was terrible.
I’m 16 and a couple weeks ago I started work. I was walking through the isle of the shop I work in and saw this guy. He was so cute the first time I saw him, he smiled and that was it- in love I fell! He’s gone now though. Moved to uni- it hurts now knowing I might never see him again and that I should have spoken to him more
It happened to me too! But the weird thing is this never happened to me in school but when I was much older. I look at him well enough to assess whether he was gorgeous or not. The minute I looked at him,I just felt a jolt in my heart and this incredible rush of adrenaline. I couldn’t feel my body and I wasn’t aware of anything. I think I gave a small start then and my eyes widened.
I was incredibly drawn to him and if he was in close proximity, my knees would go weak, I’d feel so happy that I couldn’t think of anything and I’d have such a fast heartbeat and high adrenaline rush that I wouldn’t be able to do anything right. I was dumbfounded and I couldn’t even speak right. If I looked at him and made eye contact with him, I’d immediately start blushing. All the heat in my body would rise to my cheeks. A few minutes of being around him or even having bare, minimal conversation was like heaven. All these beautiful, heavenly emotions would come to my head and I’d be in this feverish frenzy for hours or days at a time( I know it sounds crazy). But it was so beautiful. He stimulated my senses in a way no one ever could. Those memories still put a smile on my face sometimes and I still can remember how intensely I felt.