Safeguard Your Heart This Summer

Sunny days bring the possibilities of vacations and summer flings. SHIRIN BATRA helps you work out if your summer romance will last longer than your tan

- Shirin Batra

Blame it on the sun or heat, fewer clothes or the vitamin D energy boost; there's something about summer that gets us hot and bothered. Add to that the prospect of being on an outdoorsy vacation and bumping into someone who ticks all your boxes (vibe check, please) without being bothered about the office grapevine or sprinting into college the next day, and, voila, you have a summer fling on your hands.

Clinical and relationship psychologist Ekta Dharia sees that a lot. Summer is a time people associate with love. Summer romances, or holiday flings, often occur outside the routine of everyday life; normal behaviour is not necessarily followed. Shephali Batra, senior consultant psychiatrist and mindfulness-based lifestyle coach, agrees. Travelling, visiting beaches, doing fun stuff, having drinks and snacks and more all these things are enhanced in the summertime. Hence, it is assumed that the chemicals in the brain (serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine) escalate and allow feelings of love and attraction to come in. These might not be long-lasting, but, at that moment, they are pretty strong.