now.

Awesome things that this article proves scientifically:

• the connection between our emotions and our physical well-being, something the Western world rarely understands - feelings of rejection trigger the same distress as physical pain, while feelings of love can be vital to the ability of a person stay healthy and to get through hard times: “Then they were shocked again, this time holding their loving partner’s hand. The same level of electricity produced a significantly lower neural response throughout the brain. In troubled relationships, this protective effect didn’t occur. If you’re in a healthy relationship, holding your partner’s hand is enough to subdue your blood pressure, ease your response to stress, improve your health and soften physical pain. We alter one another’s physiology and neural functions.”
• In turn, it’s important for us to support our loved ones, so that they can be healthy and happy too: “Staring at a picture of a spouse lit up their reward centers as expected; the same happened with those newly in love (and also with cocaine users). But, in contrast to new sweethearts and cocaine addicts, long-married couples displayed calm in sites associated with fear and anxiety. Also, in the opiate-rich sites linked to pleasure and pain relief, and those affiliated with maternal love, the home fires glowed brightly.”
• Surrounding ourselves with loved ones is incredibly important for our health - I don’t want to live any other way: “During idylls of safety, when your brain knows you’re with someone you can trust, it needn’t waste precious resources coping with stressors or menace. Instead it may spend its lifeblood learning new things or fine-tuning the process of healing. Its doors of perception swing wide open. ”

I have responsibility but am powerless. You have power but are irresponsible with my rights.

Super well written, says everything that needs to be said in an articulate and thoughtful way.

thepoliticalfreakshow:

  Rush Limbaugh devoted much of his three-hour radio show today and yesterday to sexist ad hominin attacks on Sanda Fluke, the Georgetown Law student whom House Republicans didn’t let testify at last week’s contraception hearing. Limbaugh unleashed a thesaurus of sexist slurs at Fluke to his 15 million listeners, and now Fluke is speaking up. She released this statement:

We are fortunate to live in a democracy where everyone is entitled to their own opinions regarding legitimate policy differences. Unfortunately, numerous commentators have gone far beyond the acceptable bounds of civil discourse.

No woman deserves to be disrespected in this manner. This language is an attack on all women, and has been used throughout history to silence our voices.

The millions of American women who have and will continue to speak out in support of women’s health care and access to contraception prove that we will not be silenced.

No one should be afraid to call him/herself a feminist. If you’re intimidated by the connotations, that’s fine. Just say you believe in equality of the sexes. (You do, right?) But don’t contribute to making it shameful. And don’t try to insult me by calling me a feminist. You’re just going to make me proud.