So how do your keep it fresh?

Maybe a little reinvention can go a long way. Using laboratory studies, real-world experiments and brain-scan data, scientists have a good idea what couples can do to keep things a little spicy and interesting. Some of us may already know the answer and it seems to be common sense but I can gaurantee that human nature has us doing less of it and more of the same old repetition. Get creative and a little adventuresome when you design your date to ignite that 'old found love'.

Put to use your imagination and kick out your old habits of eating in the now too familiar restaurants every week with same conversations and same friends. Look to reinvent your night out from top to bottom. A 'wow' so to speak. It is easier than you think. Something as simple as a change of venue can create a new atmosphere that has some unexpected qualities like a new menu to choose from, new people to chat with and even some lively entertainment. Even having a the expectation of the unexpected can add a little spice to the night. The goal is to find ways to keep introducing the unfamiliar into the dating aspect of your marriage. If you need a little push to get your creative juices flowing: go to an art exhibit, the opera, a play, the park, an amusement park, get a couple's massage, have a picnic, go horseback riding, fly a kite or go to a wine tasting. One of my favorite things to do is to go to as many restaurant as we can and have an drink or appetizer at the bar instead of sitting down for a big dinner, it creates a new environment every hour or so and you get to visit 4 or 5 great restaurants as well as meet some interesting people.

Brain science is showing us that new experiences activate the brain's reward system, flooding it with dopamine and norepinephrine. The activated circuits are the identical ones that are stimulated during new romantic love when your body presents intense feelings of exhilaration and obsessive thoughts about your new love. (They are also the brain chemicals involved in drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.)

Although many studies of love and marriage show that romantic love will start to decline over time and is replaced by familiarity and predictable feelings several experiments show that adding the unexpected by simply doing new things together as a couple may help bring the 'new love experience' back, recreating the feelings from the chemical surges of early dating.

Anthropologist Helen E. Fisher, of Rutgers, who has published several studies on the neural basis of romantic love suggests that by doing this we are altering brain chemistry and creating a new experience. "We don't really know what's going on in the brain, but as you trigger and amp up this reward system in the brain that is associated with romantic love, it's reasonable to suggest that it's enabling you to feel more romantic love."

Over the past several years, Dr. Aron and his colleagues have tested the novelty theory in a series of experiments. In one such study researchers used standard questionnaires to measure, 53 middle-aged couple's relationship quality and then randomly assigned them to one of three groups. Couples spend 90 minutes a week doing what they normally would do when spending time together. Another group spent 90 minutes a week on "exciting" activities that was attractive yet unfamiliar to the couple like going to a concert, plays, skiing, hiking and dancing. The third group was not given direction.

Although the experiments are considered to be inconclusive because they were not performed in a controlled environment. After 10 weeks, the couples again took tests to gauge the quality of their relationships. Those who had undertaken the "exciting" date nights showed a significantly greater increase in marital satisfaction than the "pleasant" date night group.

One of the more interesting experiments involved couples that were assigned to do a mundane task such as simply walking back and forth across a room. Some couples were assigned a more interesting and more challenging activity. They had their wrists bound as well as their ankles and had to crawl back and forth pushing a ball(that's a tough one). The couples level interest in their relationship was measured before and after the activity with questions like If they were bored with your current relationship. This is where it gets interesting. Those couples that had the more challenging activity reported larger increase in love and satisfaction and those that were held to the more simple task did not show any meaningful change.

Brain scans show that romantic love can be long lasting in a marriage. Last week, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference in Albuquerque, researchers presented brain-scan data on several men and women who had been married for 10 or more years. Interviews suggest that couples were still very in love with their spouses. Brain scans confirmed it, showing increased brain activity associated with romantic love when the subjects saw pictures of their spouses. The scientists believe regular injections of novelty and excitement most likely play a role in the ability to create the long lasting feelings.

You don't have to recreate your wedding night every night. Fisher said. "Just go to a new part of a town, take a drive in the country or better yet, don't make plans, and see what happens to you."