Project One—Final Draft

LOVE: Language of Various Emotions

            From the beginning of time, it has been human nature to express, desire, and attempt to understand love. The oldest of all love stories began with Adam and Eve and has progressed into more modern tales (i.e. Romeo and Juliet, A Walk to Remember, etc.). Love is an incredibly complicated topic; after all, what does the word love really mean? There’s self-love, romantic-love, parent-child-love, plutonic/friendship-love, and so on. We meet an individual who we like, begin a relationship with them, and ultimately decide if we “love” them. It’s crazy to think that a seemingly simple, four letter word, can play such a major role in our lives. 

            Have you ever realized how sensual an experience love really is? Our five senses are highly involved in our love affairs. Love involves each sense in so many different ways. It’s something a lot of us don’t realize, I presume because it comes so naturally, however, I believe it is why we desire love. Love awakens or enhances our senses and thus excites our bodies physically and emotionally in turn. Think about it, love can make you feel so alive.

            According to the Dictionary, Love can be defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. If you have ever considered yourself to be in love or to have been loved, I am sure these words spark some sort of image in your head; bringing in one of your senses—sight. Love involves our sense of sight in a remarkable amount of means.

            Just seeing one you love can evoke such joy. If you truly love someone, a simple smile from them can turn a rough day into a decent day or even a good one at that. I have watched firsthand how seeing someone you love can completely turn one’s mood around. I work in a nursing home and one of the most heartwarming sights for me is witnessing residents light up when their family members come to visit. When residents recognize the individuals who have walked into the facility as their loved ones, nothing compares to the elation of mind and body they experience. What’s funny to me, is that although their family members are there to see them and not me, I am glad as well because it is so great to see the ones I care for on a daily basis know they are loved and cherished.  

            Another aspect of our sight involved in love is in romantic taste in looks. Many have a romantic type and when describing this so-called type its crazy to actually think about how heavily this “type” relies on site. Typically, the first thing people explain when they state their type is a physical description—a.k.a. what’s visually pleasing to them. A certain build, eye color, hair color, etc. all things that would not matter if we did not depend on our sense of sight. In contrast, people still rely on their site when describing personality traits in their type. I mean, how do you know someone is really who they say they are if they do not exhibit, for say, kindness, generosity, etc. in their actions and words. If you do not actually see them exhibit your desired traits, how can you be sure they ever will? Seeing is believing (in this case)!

            In conjunction with taste-- as in someone’s partiality for something (dictionary.com) -- comes our physical sense of taste and how it consociates with love. When you love someone romantically the way they taste becomes more and more familiar to you. If you are in love with someone you become fonder and fonder of their kiss and their kiss becomes such a positive in your life. The taste of your lover can be ecstasy.

            The sense of hearing plays a large part in love as well. At the start of our lives, one of the most soothing things to an infant is their mother’s voice. After developing for nine months in their wombs, a mother’s voice can astonishingly sooth a child. The love exhibited by a mother to her child is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. Oftentimes, even when a mother disciplines her child you can hear how it aches her to have to be unkind to one she has endless love for; but, because she has such immense love for her child she knows that showing tough love will ultimately allow her child to grow into the best individual he/she can be.

            When people love each other, you can hear it in their voices. The most endearing terms are shared between those who love each other and just like I discussed with sight, hearing the voice of someone you love can instantly change your mood. In my case, hearing familiar voices of those I know who love me can relieve my anxiety. Coming home and hearing a family member, a close friend, or my boyfriend tell me everything is going to be okay is one of the best things for me. I am a person who needs reassurance and without hearing things laid out for me, I experience a great deal of anxiety. Knowing someone loves you because of the way they speak to you and talk about you is one of the most amazing feelings in the world.

Touch is incredibly important in loving one another. Although, many think solely of romantic-love when they hear the word touch, touch is more vital to all kinds of love than many seem to realize. Almost all humans crave touch. It is practically bred within us to give hugs, to give kisses, etc. to physically comfort and show affection for those we love. Chemicals in our brain play a role in our desire to touch and be touched, however I believe it is more than this, which is one of the main reasons I choose this topic for my project.

Every human emotion can be relayed through touch. Humans need this interconnectedness that touch displays. When words fail or are not enough, touch can say it all. According to Psychology Today, a study performed by psychologist Matthew Hertenstein shows humans have an innate ability to decode emotions via touch alone. The study involved blindfolded individuals and experimenting whether or not they could communicate emotions solely through touch. Seventy-five percent of the time, no matter in which country the experiment was performed, the emotion intended to be interpreted through touch was guessed correctly.

This is incredible to me and proves how love relies on our sense of touch. Without touch, it would be harder to distinctly exhibit signs of love. Love is directly linked to our emotions as our emotions are to touch—thus they all go hand in hand.

The smell of a loved one plays an immense role in love. Humans can recognize loved ones by their smell; Whether that be because of a favorite cologne they wear, a certain brand of shampoo, or just because of their natural scent. It’s funny how we may not even be fond of their scent, but because we love them and use scent as a connection for memory we can remember them/they can come to our minds when we get a whiff of a certain scent.

The best example I have of this is how after losing someone you love, it is so soothing to smell something of theirs. For example, their favorite blanket, a shirt, etc. can bring back so many memories. As one of my sources for this project, I decided to interview my mother and father about how certain scents bring back memories of my sister Brooke. (My younger sister Brooke passed away in 2012 from a rare genetic disorder.)

Both of my parents discussed how a scent from Bath and Body Works --Japanese Cherry Blossom-- reminded them of my sister the most. Any time my parents use that particular lotion they remember all the times they held my sister in their arms. That was Brooke’s signature scent, and even now, six years after she left us, the slightest hint of that lotion can bring back a flood of precious memories.

From this project, I have explored so much about love and how it relates to our senses. I never expected myself to become as interested and emotionally involved as I did with this project. The value of this project I suppose really derives from understanding how lucky we are to have the gift of love. In my eyes, humans are able to use our senses to the best of our abilities through love. Love encompasses all emotions and ties in all of our senses for the most beautiful, eye-opening, and elating experience(s).

Works Cited:

Chillot, Rick. “The Power of Touch.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 11 Mar. 2013,     

       www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201303/the-power-touch.

“Love.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/love.

Urban, Rose M. and Gil W. (Interviewees). Urban, Surena M.E. (Interviewer).