What Happens When They Look Into Your Eyes
In this overly frenetic world, we do not often stop to enjoy the little things that life has to offer. Looking into someone’s eyes must be one of the most wonderful experiences in our life and we often do not take the time to do it.
In this article, we will tell you about two experiments that will leave you astounded. The goal in both is similar: looking into another’s eyes for a determined period of time. The effect of focusing all of our attention on the other person’s eyes is enormous.
Looking into a stranger’s eyes
Let’s take the example that you are in the subway heading to work. Bored, you look around you, maybe looking for a familiar face or thinking about what the life of each of your travel companions is like. Suddenly, your eyes cross those of another passenger. What is your first reaction? Of course it is to look the other way or lower your head in shame. What would happen if you both held that gaze for a few seconds? Surely it would start to draw your attention!
This typical situation was the first step for an experiment called “Miradas” (Looks) where 20 people were brought together who did not know one another. They were placed randomly into groups and given a simple job: look into each other’s eyes for a few minutes while the cameras filmed them…and go with the flow.
A look was enough to awaken all kinds of sensations in the participants: shared laughter, blushing cheeks, nervous smiles, and even a racing heart or sweaty palms. Keeping their eyes fixed on the other person’s brought on a series of feelings that no one could explain in words.
Happiness, hope, and even love were what was expressed in those looks. Many of them even kissed each other passionately! Upon finishing the experiment, each one had to say what they felt during those unusual moments.
Most of them defined it as something that they had never expected. Some spoke of love at first sight, and others of the level of intimacy that they had established with someone who was, until then, a stranger. The conclusion is that it is often enough just to pay attention to the other person to find what we are looking for. We simply have to look around more.
Looking into your partner’s eyes
In movies, we see scenes where the protagonists look at each other for a very long time and everything seems so magical. Why doesn’t that happen in real life? Because we don’t let it happen!
It does not matter long you have been with that special someone, start thinking about when the last time was that you looked at each other fixedly without paying attention to anything else. I imagine it will take you a while to come up with the answer…
Another experiment, similar to the previous one, wanted to prove that looking directly into each other’s eyes increases the level of intimacy in a relationship. In the test, those two people had to keep looking into the other person’s eyes for 4 minutes without speaking. The range of relationships was so wide that it also included strangers. There were also engaged couples, first dates, and even a married couple who had been together for 55 years.
At the end of that time period, it is interesting to analyze the reactions and statements of each of these people. They all indicated that they felt closer to their partners, that love had been “reborn,” and that they did not understand why they didn’t look into each other’s eyes more often. Some of the strangers even started dating after the experiment and got married months later. Here is the video so that you can enjoy it:
How would you feel if you look into your partner’s eyes for a few minutes? Without fighting, without thinking about your problems or money, without anyone or anything bothering you. Maybe you would realize that in those small emotions is true love and the intimacy that is so often spoken of. A simple look is all it takes to once again find the purest emotions that we can experience.