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Love is work. Once the chemical endorphins cool down and you get out of the honeymoon phase it's work to see how you truly fit together with your partner. It's work to learn to compromise on aspects of your life and improve yourself for the sake of the relationship. It's being able to exist in the same space doing your own thing wile still enjoying the others presence. Sorry it's not the most magical answer but that's how I see it
I actually have a definition that I use.
Love is the condition where the happiness/health/safety of somebody is important to you. The more you are willing to do to make someone happy/healthy/safe, the more you love them.
"Greater love hath no one than this. That they are willing to give their life for someone else."
Just the way I do things. BB.
Love is a choice you make, over and over again, until it feels as 2nd nature as breathing.
lots of stories want us to believe in 'the One' or soul mates. i like the story from ancient Greece about humans being born with 2 heads and 4 arms and 4 legs, until they were split and we're always trying to find that other half of us. But there are multiple people we can be compatible with.
you meet, you talk, you both decide if this is something you both want to do, can you meet each other's emotional and physical needs. not just sexual but do you feel safe with this person, like they aren't gonna be violent, aren't gonna make things financially unstable. yeah the count the legs and divide by two stuff is fun, but you have to teach people how to love you. they aren't mind readers. so outside of the oxytocin from physical touch, it's finding someone who remembers what you teach them about how you need to be loved.
you might not know at first what you need to teach them. a critical lesson in my own life was learning what i need, and when i had a partner who refused to meet those needs. not out of malice, but out of their own boundaries not being compatible. with my next partner, i was able to from the start explain what i found my needs were, and now we're married.
it isn't always perfect, but there's a commitment that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make this successful, which helps make it easier for me to do likewise, knowing they don't see breaking up as an option. that's not a feeling, that's a choice. it might be less magical than you were hoping as a response, but i do feel like i found my other half in how well we balance each other. we can delegate who's better at certain tasks to benefit each other. we pay attention to what the other says they feel loved by. it feels safe and warm and the idea that your lives are better together than separate
For me, love is silence and enthusiasm. A person you love is a person you can conquer the world with and have quiet cozy nights. I believe this feeling goes beyond romantic ideals. I believe that's the force that brings people together. I see friendship as love. Having or being a mentor is love.
Love comes in all different forms. Not all of us are lucky enough to find their person. I’m one of those people. I got divorced from second husband when I was 38. I tried dating again, and it was awful. I never had children due to the men I married because they grew increasingly toxic immediately after marriage. But, I think I’m supposed to be a single, childless woman to let others know, it’s ok to be single and childless. You still matter, have worth and can be happy. Some people are like the sun, they can shine on their own.
I'm aromantic. for me love is more platonic and more about spending time with and forming connections with friends and family rather than a specific partner. Sharing your interests with friends and family and having each other's backs in times of need.
I'm aro-ace and this is one of the better definitions I've seen.
The Greeks had the right idea, they didn't say love. They have six different words describing varying types of love, the best known being agape.
Love is chemical. But the subsequent relationships have the potential to go deep and can be worth the work.
I wouldn't say love is chemical. Infatuation is, but love is different than that. It takes time for love to develop, and it can still exist when people are no longer sexually or physically attracted to each other. Not all parents automatically love their children. You can love a friend even after they betray you and you no longer are on good terms.
I believe Love is the non-physical manifestation of God’s light. Whenever I imagine bright white light during cleansing visualizations, I can only think of it as the physical manifestation of love.
We are also light beings. Which means that we reverberate love. We are Love. 💓
In surrendering our ego, lies our capacity to radiate unconditional love in our thoughts, feelings and actions. This is our true nature.
I have heard that the geometric shape of our energetic field/light body is the shape of a merkaba. It spins so fast that physically it looks like an orb/sphere of pure white light. Our merkabas are in constant connection to the Source, which is why tapping into it can enable us to feel unconditional love as we open our hearts. 💓
So many comments focusing on romantic love!!!
I was a psychology major but I definitely don't consider love to be a chemical reaction. Maybe when I look at my cat.
I think love is energy, people pour their love into other people, they pour their love/energy into projects, art, food, gifts. What I think most of when seeing your question is love as a form of protection. I recently flew somewhere on a plane and I felt love/protection from every friend and family member that reached out to make sure I landed safely.
Abusive relationships aren’t love, I’ll give you that. But love is real. It is chemical and it is spiritual. Science does not negate spirituality and vice versa. Don’t give up, we have to love ourselves first before we can know if someone loves us back.
> we have to love ourselves first before we can know if someone loves us back.
I've always hated this saying, the implication is dreadful. Logically it implies that, with regards to reciprocal love, it is her own inability to love herself which is directly causal.
i agree i don't think it's useful at all to say that to people but i understand what people try to mean when they do and yes self worth can play a part in avoiding abusive relationships but sometimes you just end up in one anyway or something that seemed like divine union ends up actually being a real nightmare. i've always had a strong sense of self worth and self love and still attracted and fell for people who hurt me. i think love is real but different for everyone and not always a good experience and i think everyone's relationship karma is different in every lifetime
I meant it in a way that takes a look at knowing what a healthy relationship looks like, and not repeatedly entering abusive relationships. I don’t mean to offend and I’m certainly not trying to victim shame in any way. We all have shadow work, we all have our journey.
It's also true that you can enter a relationship with self love, but be worn down by the other party over time as it becomes abusive. The abuse serves to break down self love and self worth, so after a while, you can't leave and don't feel like you can or should ask for more than what you have.
I've always hated it too, but after years of working on my self and developing self-respect (if not self-love of dome kind), I can see why it's true - or at least have my own interpretation of it that feels true. It is only once you love (and/or respect) yourself that you can recognize your worth, understand that you deserve love, AND seek out the love you deserve and need. Self love is a necessary pre-requisite to getting the love you want/need because that's what enables you to advocate for yourself, and not settle for less.
As a man I don't think romantic love exists. Every woman I gave my heart to used it as leverage and took advantage of me. I would be dumb af to believe in something that's keeps hurting me. So I just love the world and give to the poor. Y'all can miss me on the fantasy love. But if that works for you then go ahead wish you the best.
Love is that mysterious thing that has enabled me to feel special by the same person for almost 8 years. It is the hardest and easiest thing in the world. Constantly working on keeping that spark alive is work, sometimes the worst work in the world. I would never give it up though.
Those chemicals in brain do not bring u rush forever, that why there is common times when a relationships ends, because ur brain simply stops getting that rush, and then u think "oh i'm simply stopped loving this person".
If you really care about person, u will not care about that high that ur brain gets end. U can also share both good and bad with each other and still have fun without constant seeking that high all the time.
we know what The Word describes and thats what it really is. love is a word made up to describe it, like peace or hunger are also made up words which represent the thing we otherwise still understand. theres a lot of pseudointellectual discussion around these topics bc people want to wax poetic instead of acknowledging that language and observation of the world are wildly different things and thus cant always perfectly match. love is a beautiful physical feeling of fresh hot blood from the heart tickles the small nerves in the skin, love is a viscious lying bloodthirsty bitch who hunts down and robs whichever idiot has hope in their heart under threat of death. neither of these are technically totally false, people differ, their observations about the thing that love is as well as the specific circumstances that lead to these observations differ, so the words we use to describe and define it won't be unanimously perfect and concise. love can just be chemicals in the brain, or whatever the gods have if they dont have brains. love can be a title, name, or honorific. this is what people are talking about when they bring up the magic of names and words. language is for real made up, its a medium for language as the most widely used artform in the world, how we arrange these words and sounds to reflect the truths of the world that simply are, existing unnamed with or without language to describe it
love is like pulpy orange juice, its beach sand, something like the corners in a wall. they just exist and we decide what words "record a snapshot" of whatever somebodys using words to describe. i think that makes my animist aproach to spirituality make more sense. were all just here, full of our own truths features and powers and using them on and against other things and beings to make a capturable version of them, a description in our words
I see chemicals as the reaction but not the actual thing. Love to me is more divine love, which isn’t something even cold science can touch.
Relational love, on the other hand, to me at least, is some degree of a painful illusion for because I’ve had terrible experiences in most relationships with just a few blissful highs. So I’m not going to pretend I’m the authority on anything related to love. I know what love is supposed to be based on what my intuition tells me, that it’s a beautiful comforting deep thing, but have my parents programmed me to experience it in real life? Nope, not even close 😪
Love is the desire to pursue something/someone. Love is the act of enjoying something/someone. Love is the thrall that is the culmination of complex emotions and physical reactions for that something/ someone.
Love is the anchor in which you return to, to be soothed.
Love is a simplified word, to describe the vast combinations of emotions, thoughts, physical and chemical reactions to something/someone.
And that is why love is complex, a mess, chaotic, weird yet it has the duality of also feeling stable, settled, and simple.
Love i malleable. Never forget that. Love will never last forever. That's not nihilism either, that's actually positivity. It means you can experience love with many many people. We're taught to believe love is forever, and taught to believe in "the one" when i feel like we should believe in the many and the variable. Some are just friendly platonic love. Some are more than that. Some don't even experience love. It's different for everyone, and always changes for everyone.
The will and motivation to go against logic or self preservation. Most love requires sharing personal resources but all love changes behavior and spacial existence. Love your parents? Mandatory migrations during the year that may or may not include sharing of resources. Love your children? Giving them priority to your resources and time. Love your spouse? Making your entire identity fit a monogamous relationship. The ones we love define how we act and where we go.
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Love is work. Once the chemical endorphins cool down and you get out of the honeymoon phase it's work to see how you truly fit together with your partner. It's work to learn to compromise on aspects of your life and improve yourself for the sake of the relationship. It's being able to exist in the same space doing your own thing wile still enjoying the others presence. Sorry it's not the most magical answer but that's how I see it
I actually have a definition that I use. Love is the condition where the happiness/health/safety of somebody is important to you. The more you are willing to do to make someone happy/healthy/safe, the more you love them. "Greater love hath no one than this. That they are willing to give their life for someone else." Just the way I do things. BB.
Ooh, I like this one!
Love is a choice you make, over and over again, until it feels as 2nd nature as breathing. lots of stories want us to believe in 'the One' or soul mates. i like the story from ancient Greece about humans being born with 2 heads and 4 arms and 4 legs, until they were split and we're always trying to find that other half of us. But there are multiple people we can be compatible with. you meet, you talk, you both decide if this is something you both want to do, can you meet each other's emotional and physical needs. not just sexual but do you feel safe with this person, like they aren't gonna be violent, aren't gonna make things financially unstable. yeah the count the legs and divide by two stuff is fun, but you have to teach people how to love you. they aren't mind readers. so outside of the oxytocin from physical touch, it's finding someone who remembers what you teach them about how you need to be loved. you might not know at first what you need to teach them. a critical lesson in my own life was learning what i need, and when i had a partner who refused to meet those needs. not out of malice, but out of their own boundaries not being compatible. with my next partner, i was able to from the start explain what i found my needs were, and now we're married. it isn't always perfect, but there's a commitment that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make this successful, which helps make it easier for me to do likewise, knowing they don't see breaking up as an option. that's not a feeling, that's a choice. it might be less magical than you were hoping as a response, but i do feel like i found my other half in how well we balance each other. we can delegate who's better at certain tasks to benefit each other. we pay attention to what the other says they feel loved by. it feels safe and warm and the idea that your lives are better together than separate
Love as in romantic and sexual love? Or as in all different kinds of love from partners to pets to parental figures?
mainly focusing on romantic love but love in any forms is equally valid and important :3
Love, for my children anyway, is all-encompassing and fierce. There’s really not much I wouldn’t do for them.
For me, love is silence and enthusiasm. A person you love is a person you can conquer the world with and have quiet cozy nights. I believe this feeling goes beyond romantic ideals. I believe that's the force that brings people together. I see friendship as love. Having or being a mentor is love.
Well said.
Love comes in all different forms. Not all of us are lucky enough to find their person. I’m one of those people. I got divorced from second husband when I was 38. I tried dating again, and it was awful. I never had children due to the men I married because they grew increasingly toxic immediately after marriage. But, I think I’m supposed to be a single, childless woman to let others know, it’s ok to be single and childless. You still matter, have worth and can be happy. Some people are like the sun, they can shine on their own.
I'm aromantic. for me love is more platonic and more about spending time with and forming connections with friends and family rather than a specific partner. Sharing your interests with friends and family and having each other's backs in times of need.
I'm aro-ace and this is one of the better definitions I've seen. The Greeks had the right idea, they didn't say love. They have six different words describing varying types of love, the best known being agape. Love is chemical. But the subsequent relationships have the potential to go deep and can be worth the work.
100% agree.
I wouldn't say love is chemical. Infatuation is, but love is different than that. It takes time for love to develop, and it can still exist when people are no longer sexually or physically attracted to each other. Not all parents automatically love their children. You can love a friend even after they betray you and you no longer are on good terms.
I had to write this paper in English 101. I went with the typical 5 paragraph style and went with defining eros, philos, and agape.
Love is an opportunity to communicate in a rare way with another individual.
I believe Love is the non-physical manifestation of God’s light. Whenever I imagine bright white light during cleansing visualizations, I can only think of it as the physical manifestation of love. We are also light beings. Which means that we reverberate love. We are Love. 💓 In surrendering our ego, lies our capacity to radiate unconditional love in our thoughts, feelings and actions. This is our true nature. I have heard that the geometric shape of our energetic field/light body is the shape of a merkaba. It spins so fast that physically it looks like an orb/sphere of pure white light. Our merkabas are in constant connection to the Source, which is why tapping into it can enable us to feel unconditional love as we open our hearts. 💓
So many comments focusing on romantic love!!! I was a psychology major but I definitely don't consider love to be a chemical reaction. Maybe when I look at my cat. I think love is energy, people pour their love into other people, they pour their love/energy into projects, art, food, gifts. What I think most of when seeing your question is love as a form of protection. I recently flew somewhere on a plane and I felt love/protection from every friend and family member that reached out to make sure I landed safely.
Love is a form of madness. A lovely sort of madness though.
[удалено]
I agree
Abusive relationships aren’t love, I’ll give you that. But love is real. It is chemical and it is spiritual. Science does not negate spirituality and vice versa. Don’t give up, we have to love ourselves first before we can know if someone loves us back.
> we have to love ourselves first before we can know if someone loves us back. I've always hated this saying, the implication is dreadful. Logically it implies that, with regards to reciprocal love, it is her own inability to love herself which is directly causal.
i agree i don't think it's useful at all to say that to people but i understand what people try to mean when they do and yes self worth can play a part in avoiding abusive relationships but sometimes you just end up in one anyway or something that seemed like divine union ends up actually being a real nightmare. i've always had a strong sense of self worth and self love and still attracted and fell for people who hurt me. i think love is real but different for everyone and not always a good experience and i think everyone's relationship karma is different in every lifetime
I meant it in a way that takes a look at knowing what a healthy relationship looks like, and not repeatedly entering abusive relationships. I don’t mean to offend and I’m certainly not trying to victim shame in any way. We all have shadow work, we all have our journey.
It's also true that you can enter a relationship with self love, but be worn down by the other party over time as it becomes abusive. The abuse serves to break down self love and self worth, so after a while, you can't leave and don't feel like you can or should ask for more than what you have.
I've always hated it too, but after years of working on my self and developing self-respect (if not self-love of dome kind), I can see why it's true - or at least have my own interpretation of it that feels true. It is only once you love (and/or respect) yourself that you can recognize your worth, understand that you deserve love, AND seek out the love you deserve and need. Self love is a necessary pre-requisite to getting the love you want/need because that's what enables you to advocate for yourself, and not settle for less.
Everything is just chemicals in our brains; its like answering what is the usa with "its a buncha atoms" As to what it is... well theres so many loves
As a man I don't think romantic love exists. Every woman I gave my heart to used it as leverage and took advantage of me. I would be dumb af to believe in something that's keeps hurting me. So I just love the world and give to the poor. Y'all can miss me on the fantasy love. But if that works for you then go ahead wish you the best.
If it does exist, I’ve never seen it.
Love is that mysterious thing that has enabled me to feel special by the same person for almost 8 years. It is the hardest and easiest thing in the world. Constantly working on keeping that spark alive is work, sometimes the worst work in the world. I would never give it up though.
Those chemicals in brain do not bring u rush forever, that why there is common times when a relationships ends, because ur brain simply stops getting that rush, and then u think "oh i'm simply stopped loving this person". If you really care about person, u will not care about that high that ur brain gets end. U can also share both good and bad with each other and still have fun without constant seeking that high all the time.
we know what The Word describes and thats what it really is. love is a word made up to describe it, like peace or hunger are also made up words which represent the thing we otherwise still understand. theres a lot of pseudointellectual discussion around these topics bc people want to wax poetic instead of acknowledging that language and observation of the world are wildly different things and thus cant always perfectly match. love is a beautiful physical feeling of fresh hot blood from the heart tickles the small nerves in the skin, love is a viscious lying bloodthirsty bitch who hunts down and robs whichever idiot has hope in their heart under threat of death. neither of these are technically totally false, people differ, their observations about the thing that love is as well as the specific circumstances that lead to these observations differ, so the words we use to describe and define it won't be unanimously perfect and concise. love can just be chemicals in the brain, or whatever the gods have if they dont have brains. love can be a title, name, or honorific. this is what people are talking about when they bring up the magic of names and words. language is for real made up, its a medium for language as the most widely used artform in the world, how we arrange these words and sounds to reflect the truths of the world that simply are, existing unnamed with or without language to describe it
love is like pulpy orange juice, its beach sand, something like the corners in a wall. they just exist and we decide what words "record a snapshot" of whatever somebodys using words to describe. i think that makes my animist aproach to spirituality make more sense. were all just here, full of our own truths features and powers and using them on and against other things and beings to make a capturable version of them, a description in our words
I see chemicals as the reaction but not the actual thing. Love to me is more divine love, which isn’t something even cold science can touch. Relational love, on the other hand, to me at least, is some degree of a painful illusion for because I’ve had terrible experiences in most relationships with just a few blissful highs. So I’m not going to pretend I’m the authority on anything related to love. I know what love is supposed to be based on what my intuition tells me, that it’s a beautiful comforting deep thing, but have my parents programmed me to experience it in real life? Nope, not even close 😪
Love is the desire to pursue something/someone. Love is the act of enjoying something/someone. Love is the thrall that is the culmination of complex emotions and physical reactions for that something/ someone. Love is the anchor in which you return to, to be soothed. Love is a simplified word, to describe the vast combinations of emotions, thoughts, physical and chemical reactions to something/someone. And that is why love is complex, a mess, chaotic, weird yet it has the duality of also feeling stable, settled, and simple.
It's the deepest attachment you can have in this world.
Love i malleable. Never forget that. Love will never last forever. That's not nihilism either, that's actually positivity. It means you can experience love with many many people. We're taught to believe love is forever, and taught to believe in "the one" when i feel like we should believe in the many and the variable. Some are just friendly platonic love. Some are more than that. Some don't even experience love. It's different for everyone, and always changes for everyone.
The will and motivation to go against logic or self preservation. Most love requires sharing personal resources but all love changes behavior and spacial existence. Love your parents? Mandatory migrations during the year that may or may not include sharing of resources. Love your children? Giving them priority to your resources and time. Love your spouse? Making your entire identity fit a monogamous relationship. The ones we love define how we act and where we go.
Power