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Here's what gives you those 'butterflies' in a new relationship and how you can keep it long-term
"Butterflies" can often fade in long-term relationships...but they don't have to!
Randy Aragon
06.10.21

Anyone who’s old enough to go on a first date has felt that feeling, the one where it feels like butterflies are floating around in your stomach as you connect with this new person. The only problem is that the feeling eventually fades away, but don’t worry, there’s a way to get it back…

Those first-date butterflies are actually a chemical reaction in your brain, and you might be able to get them back…Here’s how…

Pixabay - bogitw
Source:
Pixabay - bogitw

Let’s be clear, just because those butterflies are gone, doesn’t mean that you love each other any less or the connection, in general, is not there anymore. In fact, the human body isn’t built to sustain that intense feeling for too long.

Pixabay - gerait
Source:
Pixabay - gerait

This is because it’s actually a chemical reaction with the hormones in your brain that are creating this feeling. While certain “happy” hormones like serotonin and dopamine are also at play, the main hormone that’s creating those butterflies is adrenaline, according to behavioral scientist Clarissa Silva.

When you get those butterflies, your adrenal gland is releasing adrenaline

Adrenaline is the same hormone released when you feel stressed out, have short breath, and high blood pressure, but in the case of the new relationship, it works to give you that butterfly feeling.

“Increased adrenaline levels is what makes you start to sweat, your heart race, ‘butterflies in your stomach’ and/or your mouth going dry whenever you are around the person,” said Silva, she went on to say: “This is what most people think of as ‘love at first sight’ with this phase of euphoria lasting a few months.”

Pixabay - StockSnap
Source:
Pixabay - StockSnap

While it feels great to have these butterflies, your body is not made to sustain this adrenaline forever

There’s a scientific explanation for why these feelings go away, and it has nothing to do with losing love for the person you’re with. Marriage Counselor, Dr. Danielle Forshee, LLC, explained in an interview with INSIDER:

YouTube - Mashable Screenshot
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YouTube - Mashable Screenshot

“Because there is such an intense firing of hormones and neurotransmitters going on during the beginning of a relationship, after a while, the brain just simply cannot keep up with the excitement,”

So how do you get that feeling back into an old relationship?

There are two parts to the equation, the first is romance, which you’re already experiencing when you’re in a relationship with someone you love.

The second factor is the one that can help you feel those first-date butterflies again, and that is experiencing something that you’ve never done before.

Instagram - amandsbsanchez Screenshot
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Instagram - amandsbsanchez Screenshot

The excitement you get from doing something new together should reinstate that tingling in your stomach again

So for couples that want to feel those butterflies time and time again, you should schedule new adventures and activities that you both have never lived before.

Pixabay - StockSnap
Source:
Pixabay - StockSnap

“Every so often (every few months), plan an experience for the both of you that you have never done before. Something exhilarating, fun, riveting,” said Forshee, she went on to tell INSIDER: “These types of experiences will turn on those parts of your brain and give you a shot of that fire you remembered from earlier on in your relationship.”

So what are you waiting for? Get together with your significant other and do something new and exhilarating, and you may just be full of butterflies like you were on your very first date again.

To learn more on this, watch the video below!

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