Love is a profound and indescribable emotion that can feel different for everyone. It’s a spectrum of feelings, experiences, and emotions that will leave you lost for words. The question, “Am I truly in love?” is a big one and deciding if in fact you are truly in love is a challenging task. You are navigating uncharted emotional terrain, a place where love and confusion go hand in hand. Love isn’t merely a burst of affectionate feelings. It also involves deep commitment, empathy, and the willingness to grow with another person. Recognizing genuine love requires patience and introspection, as well as understanding that there will be good times and bad.
In this guide, we look into the signs that show you’re in love, as well as taking various perspectives from therapists, researchers, and relationship experts.We will go deeper to understand what is that makes us feel like we are in love and decipher the complexities of love and relationships.
Am I Truly in Love?
Dawn and Twilight Thoughts: Their Presence in Your Mind
A prominent sign of being in love is when your thoughts at the start and end of your day, revolve around this love interest. You drift into a world where they’re the centre of your universe. It’s like they have rented a space in your brain, and they’re refusing to vacate! A pleasant experience that fills you with happiness because being in love stimulates your brain’s reward centers, releasing dopamine, a compound responsible for pleasure.
Urge to Care: Your Protective Instinct
Am I truly in love? You’ll naturally feel an urge to comfort, protect, and take care of the person you love. This nurturing instinct is more pronounced when you’re in love and it shows a deep bond and affection for the person. It’s not just about taking care of them physically but also emotionally to make sure that they’re happy and content.
Growing Together: The Evolution of Your Relationship
Love is an opportunity for both you and your partner to grow. Your partner motivates you to be the best version of yourself. You discover that you’re capable of self-reflection and adaptation when you’re in love. Challenges you face together help you grow and feel closer to one another.
Need for Affection: An Expression of Love
When you’re in love with someone, you want to show your affection to them all the time. It’s your way of nurturing a loving relationship and letting your partner know you care about them. Am I truly in love? Depending on your love languages, you will have unique ways of showing affection. Some people show love through physical touch. Others through acts of service or quality time. Then there are people who show love by giving gifts or just encouraging their lover with words of affirmation.
A Complementary Bond: Enhancing Each Other’s Lives
If you’re in love, you’re seeking someone who complements you rather than completing you. You want someone who will make you better and add to your life experience. It’s about enjoying their company and caring for them instead of seeking validation or trying to fill a void. When you’re in love you feel that your life is enhanced by them.
Physical Craving: The Magnetism of Love
This might also be a sign of lust but when you’re in love, you’re physically attracted to your partner. You feel bonded and attached to the person you love. This physical craving of desire is a good way to know that you are in love.
Physical Symptoms: Love Sickness
Being in love sometimes makes you feel a bit ‘lovesick.’ You experience physical symptoms like butterflies in your stomach, a loss of appetite, or even a sense of unease. These feelings are particularly strong in the early stages of love.
Future Planning: Envisioning a Life Together
Am I truly in love? When you’re in love, you start thinking about your future with your partner. Whether it’s planning a trip, picturing future dates, or even thinking about marriage, it’s hard to imagine your future without them.
Willingness to Work: Effort in Love
Love isn’t a walk in the park. It requires effort from both partners. When you’re in love, you’re willing to put in the work to ensure the relationship thrives over time. You feel grateful to have the opportunity to nurture the relationship, and you’re willing to make the necessary compromises.
A Balanced Life: Maintaining Your Relationships
You’re in love so it’s only natural to want to spend the majority of your time with your partner. But you must maintain a balance. If you’re constantly talking about your partner or asking if you can bring them along to social events, sounds like you’re in love. But remember, it’s important to give equal time and attention to other relationships in your life as well. Don’t drop all your friends at the first sign of love because you might need them later on if this relationship does not go to plan.
Love is a beautiful
A complex emotion that can’t be put into one single definition. It’s a journey of self-discovery, growth, and connection. So, if you’re lucky enough to be feeling and experiencing some of these signs that we have talked about, chances are you’re truly in love!! There are always 7 ways to tell that his feelings are genuine. Always remember to stay mindful and make sure your relationship is healthy and balanced.
What Really Is Love?
Love cannot be seen. It cannot be measured. It can be given freely and taken away just as easily. Humans for thousands of years have been trying to define love, but as it is felt uniquely from individual to individual how is this possible. The ancient Greek determined there were 7 types of love –
Agape, Storge, Pragma, Philautia, Philia, Ludus and Eros all of which are covered in deep in the main pages of this website. But how do these forms of love fit in with relationships in modern day society? Really, is love all that is is cracked up to be? How do Modern Terms of Love marry up with the ancient greek philosophers –
Unconditional Love
When one thinks and does unselfish acts, without limitation in order to make their partner happy without expectation of anything in return. The Greeks termed Agape Love as unconditional love and if two people are offering this love to each other they say there can never be a better love as there will never be someone that takes or is a taker, each will always be seeking the best for the other.
Unfortunately this love can be the strongest if the other partner really loves them and does not take their love selfishly. Unfortunately many that offer this kind of love attract narcissists who will take advantage of them and destroy their ability in the future to love others in the same way.
Passionate Love
When love is determined how one feels especially physically. ‘my lips tingled when he kissed me’, ‘the earth shook when we made love’ – this is a consuming love filled with passion and feelings but unless evolving to, or incorporating traits from one of the other loves will not stand the test of time. The greeks describe this love as EROS.
Holistic Love
A love that shows ultimate affection for their partner and others. It is the concept of love that is chased in order to understand it more fully. Terms like ‘adore’ are used and there is often a collaboration with religion or spirituality that surrounds the relationship. This love may also include passion, friendship and promoting self/partner adequacy. It is Philia.
Enduring Love
Otherwise described as everlasting love is not driven by passion, although passion may play a role in the relationship. No this is when someone see’s traits and values that they share in another. It is calculated, often even down to physical attributes and far from romantic but they both have a vision of the path they wish to travel in life and most importantly the destination is the same, or similar.
They weigh up the pros and cons in a potential partner before entering a relationship to avoid disturbance and discomfort in their lives. This pragmatic love is most likely to endure and very rarely will either partner cheat or disappoint – working together as one in their mapped journey of life.
Playful Love
Flirtatious and naughty it is a love that requires a partner always being the center of attention when socializing or going out. One partner will always be fishing for compliments about how they look, what they are wearing and often will require a ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ type of mentality. More often than not the partner requiring the attention is a narcissist and as long as their ego is continually stroked they will be relatively happy in the relationship (although they may be looking at alternatives at the same time). This is Ludus love and apart from Eros is often the most temporary unless the narcissist finds a codependent to put up with their obsessive behaviors.
Self Love
If you cannot love yourself how can you truly love another? Many are uncomfortable talking or thinking about this kind of love for fear of being labeled egotistical or full of themselves but if looked at holistically, Philautia love can be brought down to in its simplest form
Unconditional Self Acceptance of Who You Are
Unrequited Love
When one partner openly demonstrates their love for another but it is not openly reciprocated. It does not mean that they are not loved but non-verbalization leaves the other feeling vulnerable, exposed, not desired or valued. Physchiatrist Eric Berne states about this kind of love, ‘the one to be envied is he/she who loves, however little he/she gets in return’ whilst the inability to express or declare love often leads to negative feelings such as depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and rapid mood swings between depression and euphoria.
WHAT IS NOT LOVE
Some people say that they are incapable of loving another and many theories that go along with that. One is that until you have experienced what is not love – you will never recognize the gift of love. There is belief that any narcissist is incapable of love as they are so self absorbed in themselves.
Rick has been involved in the adult lifestyle and sex toy industry for more then 25 years. Rick is an active sex blogger who provides a wealth of information and experience. He is an advocate of equality for gender and sexuality.