We’ve pretty much evolved, but still there are so many things we haven’t defined yet, even though our vocabulary is expanding rapidly. One of those things is love.
The moment we are born, we experience a strong feeling of love and bonding from our mother.
She becomes our super hero because she’s the one who brought us into this world through pain, countless sleepless nights, and some more pain.
The moment we are born, we’ve already experienced unconditional love that will last throughout our entire lifetime.
And then, as we’re going through different stages in life, we experience different types of love: romantic love, self-love, and the most powerful one – true love aka real love.
In between these types of love, we enter the realm of pure sexual attraction, infatuation toward that one person, lust, and desire.
Since there are so many shades of love, it comes natural to us human beings to be confused about the real definition of love and spend lots of our time thinking about that one question: What does love mean?
Even though it’s really hard to explain the real meaning of love because every person experiences it differently, one thing is sure:
Love is a powerful force that is invisible to the eye and must be felt with the heart.
The truth is that love is everywhere around us. Love exists in our best friends, loved ones, romantic relationships, long-term relationships, family members…
Love even exists on social media and in every love song, but it’s more of a virtual love. Love is that strong sense of belonging, gratitude, and bliss that a person feels for another human being.
Love is the Greek god of love called Eros. Love is the god of desire and attraction, Cupid. Love is saying I love you for the first time in a new relationship.
Love is concern for the well-being of your close people or your beloved person.
Love is everywhere around us and the best way to define it is through the following qualities of this powerful emotion!
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LOVE? 12 BEAUTIFUL SIDES TO THIS POWERFUL EMOTION
1. Love is complete acceptance of another human being
In this world, no one and nothing is perfect. There isn’t a single thing or human being who would fit the definition of perfection because it doesn’t exist.
Love is imperfect and as such it requires complete acceptance of another human being with all of their flaws, quirks, and good sides.
Love is accepting the person for who they really are and giving them space to express themselves without fear of being judged.
Love consists of understanding instead of criticizing and that’s how you know it’s real.
Love is when your beloved is acting childlike or doing something completely innocently stupid, but you don’t freak out because you understand that it’s a part of their personality and there’s no point in asking them to change it.
Love is when you realize that you don’t want your beloved to ever change because you love them just the way they are and if they had to change, they wouldn’t be them any longer.
And love doesn’t know age. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 20 year-old or a 70 year-old, you can still experience that deep sense of love in all its forms.
You can still experience that powerful force that is invisible to the eye yet felt with the heart!
See also: 8 Different Types Of Love And How They Impact Your Life
2. Love is unconditional
When someone asks you why you love that person and you can’t think of any reason why, but all you know is that you love them, then the love is real. Why?
Because love is unconditional. When you truly love someone, it’s hard to put it into words exactly why you love them; it’s hard to define what you feel.
When you truly love someone, you simply can’t stop loving them no matter what they say or do.
Because love is real and it’s deeply rooted within you. Your heart can’t just decide that from today it’s going to overdose on love toward that one person for specific reasons.
There are no reasons. Your heart, body, and soul have fallen in love with all those little things about that person.
You’ve subconsciously and unintentionally fallen for everything they do: the way they walk, talk, smile, think…
Your heart hasn’t chosen to do so, because love is unconditional and love is beyond our ability to comprehend.
3. Love is selfless
As already said, you cannot love a person for a reason. You also cannot truly love a person just because you want to be loved back and want them to make you happy. Why?
Because love is selfless and it doesn’t require anything in return. Love is that feeling of satisfaction in knowing that you have the power to make another person happy.
True love stems from giving, because giving is the ultimate bliss that is beyond every type of love.
There are many sides to love, but one thing is sure: True love is never selfish because as such it cannot exist. Negativity like criticizing or being greedy are direct killers of every type of love and love life.
Love can only exist in a positive environment because it’s selfless, giving, and caring.
Love also needs space and time to flourish just like a flower needs water. Love can never be forced because we have no real power over it.
All we can do is be patient and experience it with every pore of our being. All we can do is love but we can never use love to our advantage.
Otherwise, it won’t be real.
4. Love is living in the moment
Love is a powerful, omnipresent force that’s everywhere around us and the easiest way to define it with words is by describing moments of pure love – love is living in the moment and sharing moments with your special one.
Love is when every time before falling asleep you rewind in your head all those special moments you’ve had with your loved one (every kiss, every laugh, and every tear).
It’s when you can’t wait to make love with them because you enjoy the feeling of becoming one instead of merely a physical pleasure.
It’s when you’re looking for days for that special gift only to make your loved one happy and see their beautiful smile.
Love is being curled up next to them and watching your favorite TV shows until you fall asleep, when you’re acting childish in front of each other without any fear of being judged for it, when they hug you so tight before leaving and the grip sticks in your mind for the rest of the day, reminding you of their presence.
Love is crying, fighting, singing, holding hands.
When sitting together in a complete silence feels better than anything else in the world and there’s not a place you would rather be than in their arms.
Love is real. Love is present. Love needs to be lived.
5. Love has no limits
When we think about that one question, What does love mean? we usually imagine two people in love or in a committed relationship.
But, the truth is that love doesn’t necessarily have to be between two people only. The truth is that love has no limits.
We can love our friends, family, neighbours, teachers, and can also love strangers or everyone we encounter.
Every type of love is different but it has the same power and value. Every love enriches our perspective and mindset, and fills our hearts with blessings.
Love has no limits and, therefore, we should not limit ourselves when it comes to giving or receiving love from others. The more we invest in ourselves and the more we share love with others, the faster we’re growing into the person we ought to become – the ultimate us.
You can share love with a waiter in a restaurant, with the cashier, with a mailman and so on.
Sharing love means accepting all human beings equally instead of classifying them into categories according to their status or whatever else.
Sharing love means always being polite no matter what.
See also: This Is What Unconditional Love Is (Because It’s More Than Just Caring For Someone)
6. Love is a deep sense of belonging to another human being
Love is the only feeling that is so powerful that can put you into a state of constant daydreaming about your loved one because you’re so deeply attracted to each other both mentally and physically.
Love is a deep sense of belonging to another human being. Love feels like home.
It’s warm, cozy, and unconditional. When you love someone, wherever you are at the moment, you carry that love with you in your heart and mind.
No matter what you do, you feel like they’re being next to you and you have this uncontrollable urge to share with them everything that happened to you during the day.
Love makes you feel complete. All of a sudden, all those little things that you’ve been ignoring so far finally make sense.
Your perspective on life changes and you see the beauty around you easily, without even trying.
Love inspires you to smell every flower, say hi to strangers, and be the best version of yourself.
7. Love is sacrifice
Love is generally linked only with positive things and emotions, but the truth is that love is so much more than that.
Love is also sacrifice, constant effort, fighting and compromising. Loving someone is not enough for love to survive and flourish into something greater.
Sacrifice is what makes love solid and meaningful. Sacrifice means giving, making compromises and fighting for love no matter what.
Because love is not a constant variable. It evolves every day and brings new challenges that need to be dealt with.
And every overcoming challenge makes love even stronger, wiser, and bolder. That’s what love really is.
It’s knowing that things won’t always be great and being willing to fight till the last breath for something you believe in. That’s how love survives and becomes unconditional.
8. Love is security
There are billions of people in the world and if we loved every single one of them equally, we still wouldn’t feel secure because not every one of them would reciprocate.
But, when two people love each other unconditionally, effortlessly, and selflessly, they create security.
They create their own magical world full of adventures, laughter, and blessings, and being in this world feels like a new home.
Even though love cannot be seen, it still exists in every invisible shape and feeling in the world.
It is felt with the heart, and the heart is the only one who knows whether love is real or fake.
If our hearts don’t feel safe to open up to someone, then it’s for a reason. If our hearts need more time to accept love, it’s for a reason.
Sometimes, we need more time to indulge in the feeling of pure love and heal our past wounds.
And when we do, we start feeling secure in love and our inner world becomes the safest place on earth.
9. Love is respect
Love is a powerful emotion that stems from self-respect, meaning if we don’t respect ourselves, we won’t be able to respect others.
Love is the ultimate respect toward another human being where you accept them for who they are and you respect their wishes, dreams, and mindset.
Love is knowing that you and your person are totally different and embracing those differences.
Love is neither simple nor complex. It’s a spectrum placed somewhere in between these two.
Love is kissing your loved one in the forehead every time before parting, whispering into their ear that you’ll be there for them and never leave no matter how hard it gets. Because love is determined and doesn’t know lies, giving up, or selfishness.
Love only recognizes effort, mutual respect, and constant willingness to work on improving things and making love stronger.
It’s respecting your loved one’s decision to spend the night with their friends instead of you because their happiness is a reflection of your own.
Love is backing their decision to try a new hobby even though you think they won’t be really good at it. But, that’s what love is: unlimited support, respect, and appreciation.
10. Love is vulnerability
Being vulnerable in a world full of prejudice, judgement, and fake ideals sometimes equates to mission impossible. But, if you want to experience love, you need to experience vulnerability because love is vulnerability.
When you’re feeling broken from the inside out and the only thing that would help is your special one hugging you and asking you to tell them everything about how you really feel.
Crying in front of each other regardless if you’re male or female. That’s love.
Being able to share every single painful event from your past while knowing that they will understand.
That feeling of two souls being naked in front of each other, crying, laughing, and talking about random things into the early hours that no one else would understand. That’s love.
Feeling free to share everything that’s on your mind with your loved one and knowing that all of your secrets and events will be locked in their heart, forever safe with them. That, my friend, is love.
11. Love is “growing together”
It’s more than merely complimenting each other, love is also giving advice and learning from each other’s mistakes. Love is growing together.
In love, things won’t always be great because, contrary to popular belief, love is not a fairy tale.
It’s real, and therefore, all the challenges and problems connected with it arise over time. The only difference is in the way people deal with it.
If the love is real, you won’t see problems as obstacles, but as lessons and opportunities to grow together.
Love is sharing both joy and pain with each other, and learning from your mistakes – because it isn’t perfect and will never be.
12. Love is patience
Whenever you find yourself pondering the meaning of love, just think of patience.
The meaning of love is to fight with everything you have, with all of your body, mind, and soul for something you believe in – for love.
And when you know that you’ve done everything in your power to maintain and preserve love, all there is left is to wait and be patient.
Love is believing that everything will be alright no matter what happens because your love is stronger than anything.
Love is the promise you give each other that you’ll never stop fighting no matter how hard it gets, that you’ll never stop understanding no matter how confusing things are, and that you’ll never stop trying no matter how many times you fail.
Love is also making a promise to yourself that you’ll never lose self-respect and self-love because you know that these are the foundations of every great, unconditional love. Love is loving yourself.
Because love lives within you
You’re born with love and love will live within you till the end of your days. The true meaning of love exists in every human being on earth.
We all have the capacity to love and the only thing we need to do is open our heart and decide to share our love with others.
We just need to let the feeling of love guide us into the spheres of blessing, patience, and joy.
Because love must be felt with the heart, nourished with care, and embraced with an open mind.
