The Power of Love | Daily Quote No. 130
An often under appreciated source of strength in day to day life...
‘Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.’
Lao Tzu
We are social beings. Humans evolved to live in cohabitation. Feeling as if you are supported by someone is powerful.
In an experiment, people placed in an fMRI machine were exposed to a minor electric shock whilst either: being by themselves, holding a stranger’s hand, or holding their intimate partner’s hand. Those who held the hand of their significant other reported feeling the shock less, and the fMRI showed that their anxiety centres in the brain were significantly less active than those who held a strangers hand, and the effect was even more pronounced when compared with those whom were completely alone. [Source: ‘The Good Life’, Dr. Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, Page 175 (‘The Person Beside You': ‘Loving Contact’)]
The point as Lao Tzu noted is, being deeply loved gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.