How Can Love Affect Mental Health?

MEEFRO February 11, 2024

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A couple sit with their backs to camera, arms around each other on a bench overlooking a beautiful view of a lake surrounded by forest-covered mountains with a blue sky and sunshine.

Universal love might be considered when thinking of love of nature, the world, strangers or for a higher power. Unconditional love might be considered as similar to maternal love but is slightly different when looking at areas of the brain that are connected to these similar but subtly different loves. This type of love might seem illusive but there is a distinct network in the brain that works when love is unconditional and appears to be separate to other networks in the brain related to other emotions.

This same network is also shared with the brain’s reward system, suggesting when we feel unconditional love, we feel rewarded. This, along with other more selfless reasons, could be a great motivation to nurture feelings of unconditional love.

So how do we nurture love? In science, the Quadruple Theory aims to make love easier to understand and therefore easier to nurture, cultivate, regulate and preserve.

This theory states two important points about love: 1) love is universal and applies to people of all cultures, races ethnicities, religion and sexual orientations and 2) culture has a huge effect on how people behave towards each other.