Almost 30% of break-ups occur before the summer
Songs have been made about it. People break-up before the summer in the hopes of finding true soul-mates and plenty of tears are shed at the end of the summer when the reality of real life, school, children, work and other daily responsibilities come crashing down on us at the end of August.
There are a number of reasons for the anticipation and behavior before and during summer, especially for the half of the United States that is mired in cold, rainy weather during some six months of the year. The ability to stay outside later in the evening, translating into longer, less interrupted courtships (if we can call it that) and at least a modicum of romance. The warmth of the summer days and evenings helps improve the hormonal profile of both men and women as well.
With less cortisol and more focus on relationships, summer can improve intimacy
We can't ignore the physiological differences that occur during the summer months as well. A greater number of sunny warm days helps improve our ability to convert vitamin D in our bodies as well as improving our hormone profiles. The environmental impact helps calm our nerves, keep us more relaxed and less stressed and we all improve our ability to commit to relationships when we are not focusing on the many details of our lives.
The feel good hormones that are coursing through our veins help to ease our apprehension and open up our minds for love. We dress in a more relaxed fashion and bear more skin as the weather heats-up. We work on our bodies, tend to eat more healthfully and a variety of other actions that seep into our lives or loves. It is a cocktail for romance made-up of the weather, hormones, visual stimulation and so many other ingredients that often make us behave in less than cautious ways as the days heat-up and new encounters add some spice to potential relationships.
Meeting new people is titillating & exciting adding a new dimension
The last ingredient, which is often all to difficult to ignore, is one that is a primary driver for enticing young and old, into good and bad relationships with a variety of consequences. As we make changes to our lives and to our relationships, the suspense and anticipation, combined with the cocktail is often too much to deal with. Whether we know it or not, we are often unable to combat the impulses, especially when we are aged between the formative young teen years to young adulthood, when experimentation is part of growing-up.
Certainly, as we become adults, we may be able to anticipate some of the feel-good hormones that we have become somewhat used to, but we still love the experiences even though we may have been burned in the past. We believe we have learned our lessons, yet we pursue the love and romance that is so important to our psyche, both for men and women, but for different reasons.
Those hormones that are coursing through our bodies and shaping our brains, make females seek the approval, intimacy and companionship that is pre-programmed while in boys and men the desire to get intimate seems to be the main driver. There has been a wealth of research on these gender specific facts since the turn of this century and while the reasons for hooking-up aren't always as cavalier as suggested for boys and men, summer does play a role in facilitating blossoming summer romance.
