Oh what we will do for love! and the wonderful rush we feel each time we fall for love, new and old.
While we have been conditioned to believe that love is in the heart, it is actually in our hormones. Each time we fall in love, or experience the joy of discovering that a loved one, loves us, our bodies actually produce a hormone called oxytocin which gives us that warm, excited rush that makes us feel like we can take on the entire world and win! This feeling makes us more open to others, to taking chances, to splurging, and spending more than we would otherwise. Many marketers know this and spend countless resources attaching their non-love oriented products to love in order to create that hormone release that often motivates us to throw judgement out the window and live for the moment.

Beyond the powerful effects of oxytocin and consumer behavior, our bodies react to other hormones in similar ways. When we feel connected to others, important, we release other hormones that drive our behavior and thoughts. When we receive messages of hope that override feelings of despair or frustration, we again experience chemical changes in our brain that affect our reasoning. Religious efforts are a great example of how this happens daily in our lives. When we hear a sermon that our trials will be resolved and joy restored to our lives, we get feelings of hope, courage and anticipation of the reward. We then seek to follow the path set forth by the messengers, and feel "inspired" to stay the path they are leading us toward.

So the question becomes, when are we reacting to hormonal releases triggered by powerful presenters of messengers, or true inspiration derived from a source greater than those on earth?

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