‘Women want to expand, to expand the love of others and to love their children” said Barbara DeAngelis.
However, many feel forced to to contract by the realities of life. The single minded, contracted, focus of masculine society.
Each dimension of the human experience is very important.
“Women are always navigating the inner world” she said. However, some have lost touch with it
Iranian born, Ellie Drake, founder of BraveHeartWomen, is one woman who felt disempowered by the hard driving masculine focus of the outer world
A doctor, she found that women could find greater drive and power by accessing their feminine nature.
Why? The answer, according to Ellie, who is a qualified doctor, is oxytocin.
While sex differences could emerge in real-world situations, says Jennifer Bartz, a psychologist at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York, more research is needed she said.
However, there are some intriguing hints.
A new study shows that men and women who inhale a whiff of the hormone oxytocin rate strangers as more attractive.
A chemical best known for cementing the bond between a mother and her newborn child could also play a part in picking mister (or miss) right reports New Scientist.
When oxytocin courses through our blood, “we are more likely to see people we don’t know in a more positive light,” says psychologist Angeliki Theodoridou, of the University of Bristol, UK.
This effect adds to the hormone’s known role in human relationships. One previous study found that oxytocin levels spike after new mothers look at or touch their newborns and may help bonding.
The study was published in Hormones and Behavior.
New Scientist reports that adults administered with the hormone make overly generous offers in an economic game that measures trust, while men who got a dose of oxytocin proved better at remembering the faces of strangers a day later, compared to a placebo.
Theodoridou’s study gave 96 men and women either a spritz of oxytocin or a placebo in a double-blind trial.
The participants then rated pictures of 48 men and women for attractiveness and 30 for trustworthiness. They also tested for mood.
No matter the sex or mood of the volunteers, those who received oxytocin rated sboth male and female strangers as more attractive and more trusting.
The study did not test how oxytocin affected peoples social judgements. However, she speculates oytocin dampens brain activity in the amygdale, responsible for processing fearful emotions,
“A previous study found that oxytocin tempered amygdala activation in volunteers who saw a face that had previously been paired with a slight shock” wrote New Scientist.
Although there are marketed sprays claiming to attract the love of your life, their only proof comes from testimonials and they could simply be the placebo effect.
