LOVE????

Knowing you're in love feels different for everyone. Some have been in love often and know the feeling well, and others may be not so sure if it's love or just a deep infatuation. 

Luckily, your body has some pretty sneaky ways of tipping you off to whether these feelings for your partner are more than just a passing phase. Keep an eye out for these tell-tale signs the next time you catch yourself wondering if you're actually in love. 

You can't stop staring at them.

If your partner has ever caught you staring at them lovingly, it could be a sign that you're head over heels. Eye contact means that you're fixated on something, so if you find that your eyes are fixed on your partner, you may just be falling in love. 

Studies have also found that couples who lock eyes report feeling a stronger romantic connection than those who don't. It goes the other way too: when a study had strangers lock eyes for minutes at a time, they reported romantic feeling towards each other. 

You feel like you're high.​

It's completely normal to feel out of your mind when falling for someone. 

A study from the Kinsey Institute found that the brain of a person falling in love looks the same as the brain of a person who has taken cocaine. You can thank dopamine, which is released in both instances, for that feeling. 

This is a good explanation for why people in new relationships can act absolutely nonsensically. 

You want them to be happy.​

Love is an equal partnership, but you'll find someone's happiness becomes really important to you when you're falling for them. 

So-called “compassionate love” can be one of the biggest signs of a healthy relationship, according to research. This means that you're willing to go out of your way to make your partner's life easier and happier. 

If you find yourself going out of your way to keep your partner dry when walking in the rain or making them breakfast on a busy weekday morning, it's a sign you've got it bad. 

If you really get to know a person, chances are you'll pick on the little things that make them uniquely them. And if you're in love with them, these are probably some of the things that attract you most about them. 

A study found that small quirks can actually make a person fall deeper in love with someone rather than just physical attributes because people have unique preferences. So although you may have judged your partner a little harshly on first glance, if you find that you're suddenly in awe of their uniqueness, you might be in love.