A great kiss can make us swoon. April 28, 2011 is National Kiss-Your-Mate Day. So go ahead and pucker up with your sweetie. While you’re smooching, take pleasure both in your kiss and the fact that studies suggest regularly kissing your partner decreases stress and increases relationship satisfaction.
The simple act of pressing lips together creates intimacy between partners. "Kissing is passion and romance and what keeps people together," said William Michael Cane, author of The Art of Kissing.
You almost never forget your first kiss. Psychologists say most people can remember up to 90 percent of the details surrounding their first romantic kiss. That memory is more powerful than their first sexual encounter.
Geoffrey Michaelson, a Virginia psychologist, told ABC News that kissing is essential to relationships.
"In romance, the kiss takes us toward emotional intimacy," he said. "We face our beloved, look into their eyes, or close the eyes as we reach deeper into the soul of the experience, crossing the line between our separate selves and our deepest longings to be part of something more."
Kissing can relieve tension and boost self-esteem. It’s hard to not feel good when you’re kissing someone you care about.
Joy Davidson, PhD, psychologist and clinical sexologist told WebMD, "If we happen to be connecting with someone we care about, it produces a sense of well-being and a kind of full-bodied pleasure."
Our lips are also good reception points in which to welcome intimacy and affection.
Helen Fisher, PhD, author of The Sex Contract and Anatomy of Love, told WebMD, “The receptors on the lips are incredible; there's tremendous intimacy. Even the genitals do not have the sensitivity that the lips have."
Psychologist and licensed clinical social worker LeslieBeth Wish agreed.
"The lips are very sensitive tissue, with many nerve endings that signal reactions such as hot and cold, sharp and soft," she said to ABC News. "These same nerve endings also activate our feelings of closeness and attachment by arousing the brain's love chemicals such as oxytocin."
Kissing also stimulates the brain, and when the experience is a positive one, "you notice it," Fisher added. "That translates into the euphoria, or the sex drive, or the sense of calm and peace.
Who doesn’t want a sense of calm and peace? If you aren’t smooching with your sweetheart every day, use National Kiss Your Mate Day to bring back the kissing in your life. Just think of what else you’ll get in return.
Sources:
WebMD.com
Health.msn.com
ABCNews.com
TheUltimateHolidaySite.com