O que significa o amor? Tudo o que precisa de saber sobre esta emoção mágica

What does love mean? Many people say that the world revolves around money – and the rest of them say it’s love that makes the world spin.

Tendo isso em mente, podemos dizer com segurança que o amor é uma coisa muito importante para a humanidade. Se não for o mais importante.

O amor é algo universal, conhecido por todos, mas inexplicável e misterioso. Uma contradição geralmente reconhecida.

Yes, there are many definitions of love, but it’s impossible to say one definition of love is completely and utterly true and right for everyone.

It’s safe to say that love is a lot of things for a lot of people. It can’t be removed from individual experience.

Os seres humanos conhecem muitos tipos de amor: amor romântico, amor de melhor amigo, amor de família, amor de animal de estimação e outros milhões de tipos de amor.

Os gregos antigos, por exemplo, tinham sete palavras diferentes para amor!

O dicionário inglês Oxford define o amor como uma série de estados emocionais e mentais fortes e positivos, desde a mais sublime virtude ou bom hábito e o mais profundo afeto interpessoal, até ao mais simples prazer.

E embora isso pareça bastante claro à primeira vista, sei por experiência própria que se traduz na vida quotidiana sob a forma de vários ditados poéticos sobre o amor que ouvimos a toda a hora.

Por isso, quis reunir aqui alguns dos ditados mais frequentes do quotidiano e tentar chegar ao cerne do seu verdadeiro significado.

Here’s what love is when it’s not just saying simple Eu amo-te, according to… all humankind.

1. O amor é incondicional

Ouvimos muito esta frase, mas será que sabemos o que significa?

Unconditional love means appreciating someone despite their imperfections – body or personality wise.

Significa aceitar o seu ente querido tal como ele é, sem procurar beneficiar dele.

Unconditional love doesn’t look for something in return. It supports and respects regardless of one’s success, appearance, or social status.

O mais importante é a própria relação. Só pelo facto de existir tal como é.

It’s a choice to stay with someone no matter the circumstances, it means putting someone else’s needs before your own, prioritizing their happiness.

Há quem diga que o amor incondicional é simplesmente o que queremos dizer quando dizemos amor, um amor verdadeiro.

O amor incondicional significa que o seu parceiro o encoraja a ser a melhor versão de si próprio.

They don’t shame you for your actions or needs. They don’t judge you for your choices.

Em vez disso, respondem com empatia e preocupam-se com o seu bem-estar.

Também significa que pode falar livremente, sem se sentir desconfortável.

And even when you get into an argument, you try to understand each other’s points of view and have no hard time forgiving each other.

O objetivo é encontrar uma solução que vos faça felizes a ambos.

When you’re loved unconditionally, you’re not afraid to be yourself completely – because there’s nothing to prove, you know you’re not being judged.

There’s no expectation you need to fulfill. You can let your guard down. Even on your bad days!

There’s no mind games or compromises that make you feel bitter. Every decision is respective to your boundaries. You bring out the best in each other.

2. O amor é cego

O amor cego é frequentemente um tema em vários tipos de arte.

The lovers are portrayed as blind to their partners’ negative traits and with a tendency to idealize them.

Porque é que amamos tantas vezes a imagem idealizada de uma pessoa em vez da imagem real? O que é que nos faz acreditar nela?

It’s strange to think that in the early stage of romantic relationships people tend to have and maintain what is called ilusões positivas em relação ao seu parceiro.

It’s almost like an attempt to live out their dream, their fantasy seeing only what they perceive as desirable and ignoring the rest.

Other than that, it’s not unusual for people to tend to keep justifying something they invested so much time and put so much attention into, and disregard everything they don’t really like yet won’t admit initially.

Depois da paixão inicial, vem o choque com a realidade.

Suddenly, a person feels like they misinterpreted their partner qualities, while in reality it’s more likely it was partly their fault for not wanting to see anything but the good qualities.

Muitas vezes, o amor romântico é confundido com a simples luxúria, especialmente numa nova relação.

And while sexual desire is an important aspect if you’re in for a long-term relationship, still, sometimes it’s just an easily extinguished fire with no real meaning.

3. O amor é tudo o que precisas

While this saying sounds quite sentimental, for many people it’s the truth they live by.

Para além de soar lamechas, se começarmos a pensar mais profundamente no assunto e nos perguntarmos realmente porque é que o amor é tudo o que precisamos, começam a surgir algumas respostas interessantes.

It’s pretty clear that we need love to feel valuable and accepted, which then gives our lives meaning. Love isn’t just sweet words and hugging.

It’s something we need in order to go about our everyday life not feeling devastated and miserable.

We feel devastated and miserable when our needs aren’t met. It affects our quality of life.

The way we do things – the way we eat, sleep, make connections.

It all boils down to love. That’s why it is essential to us.

Love isn’t just a feeling, it’s also an action. It motivates you to do things in life. It gives you purpose.

It makes you commit. There’s nothing people can stick to if there isn’t some aspect of love involved.

4. O amor é eterno

Por falar em ditados sentimentais, este também é um deles. No entanto, este tem um significado um pouco mais filosófico.

O amor eterno é o amor que não tem fim, obviamente.

What that means is, there’s no obstacle that can stop the people who love each other from loving each other.

You might ask yourself if eternal love is really possible, but let me tell you – we all witnessed that long-lasting, Tipo de bloco de notas, relação amorosa pelo menos uma vez.

You know you saw that cute older couple holding hands and thought to yourself, ”Real love exists and it doesn’t get old. I want that kind of love.”

Throughout human history, there were so many proofs of eternal love, so many legends, fairy-tales and real historical stories about undying love, so it’s most likely true.

Maybe it’s not as frequent because it requires a lot of work and sacrifices, but it’s wrong to say it doesn’t exist when it clearly does.

5. O amor não conhece limites

Cada pessoa tem a sua própria linguagem amorosa.

For one it’s coming home from work and having dinner prepared for them, for others it’s constant words of appreciation and encouragement or receiving a love song.

However, when you truly love someone or something, all of your personal preferences are put aside; there’s no thing that is off-limits.

O tempo mostrou-nos tantas coisas altruístas, fascinantes, quase impossíveis, que as pessoas fizeram em nome do amor.

From risking their lives in extraordinary situations to astonishing sacrifices they’ve made in everyday life, such as dedicating their life to greater a purpose of making the life of others more humane, healthier and happier.

Everyday, people’s lives are changed and saved solely because of love.

No interest could make a person risk their own life for somebody else’s. It can only be love.

And that’s where the mystery of love lies.

6. O amor magoa

A slightly darker view on love. After I’ve said everything I’ve said about love and it’s importance in the life of a person, it’s needless to say that not having or missing it hurts like hell.

When it’s good, it’s great; but when it’s bad it’s the worst thing you can imagine.

Pain can cause total eclipse of one’s seemingly healthy mind. There’s so many things that could go wrong.

The person you’re in love with doesn’t love you back. The person who supposedly loves you – abuses you.

The person you loved has passed away. You’re unable to help your loved one while they are suffering from life threatening illness.

Your best friend for life has betrayed you. Your love at first sight turned out to be a high-functioning narcissist. You’ve been cheated on or lied to.

There are so many ways to break a heart. Sometimes it takes just one person – just one relationship to change your views on love forever. For better or worse.

A heart is so fragile that sometimes you don’t even need someone else to break it.

Pode fazê-lo você mesmo, colocando-se em situações que lhe causam desconforto e dor, não cuidando de si, colocando-se em último lugar e sendo o seu pior inimigo.

After the trauma it’s hard to believe in love again. Your perception of love becomes distorted.

Deixamos de associar o amor a sentimentos de segurança ou felicidade, mas sim a sentimentos de medo e perda e, a dada altura, perguntamo-nos inevitavelmente: O que é o amor, afinal?

7. O amor é o sentido da vida

As I said before, while we can write off sayings like this as being sentimental, it’s still true that when people are confronting the difficult experiences in life such as dying or surviving some type of trauma they suddenly start asking themselves about the meaning of life.

And according to the experiences of many psychologists around the world, there’s one answer that keeps popping up in the life of many when it comes to searching for the meaning of life, and you might have already guessed what it is – it’s the love.

And so often, everything else we thought was important in life, our jobs, money, recognition, looks… it all steps aside.

For some people that’s the first moment in their life when they actually start living.

O amor é o sentido da vida porque só o amor tem o poder de nos ligar ao nosso verdadeiro objetivo.

8. Nada é possível sem amor

Living in a materialistically inclined world we’re often faced with problems of materialistic nature.

It seems impossible to live life without money, without a job – without some guarantee we’re going to survive. And it’s true that we do need those things to survive.

But behind every action we take, there’s constant need for fulfillment, different from just a physical need.

Muitas pessoas famosas e ricas admitiram que, no auge do seu sucesso, se sentiam muitas vezes completamente infelizes e insatisfeitas.

Para nos sentirmos felizes, precisamos de satisfazer uma necessidade. Algo que desejamos. E essa necessidade é o amor.

It doesn’t have to be obvious. It can be masked as need for attention, need for approval, need for safety… all kinds of things.

But ultimately, it’s always love.

Para concluir este texto, que espero seja esclarecedor e útil, preciso de dizer mais algumas coisas.

In today’s world where life is happening on social media, traditional dating is replaced with dating apps, everything that was considered the norm is being put on online, and people in general are becoming more closed off, it’s important to always recognize the true face of love in all its forms.

The meaning of love can’t be found in a book or heard in a class. It can’t be learned.

It can’t be magically understood in just one moment – it’s something we learn about the whole time, it’s something that has to be lived out every day of our lives.

Estar apaixonado é a necessidade da alma, tal como a alimentação é a necessidade do nosso corpo.

It’s important to understand that love doesn’t really need to be defined but rather felt and given.

Sentir-se amado e dar amor vem sempre de algum tipo de consideração ação. That’s how love expresses itself – by what we fazer.

O que significa o amor? Porque é que é importante?

To be moved by a song or a sentence is a wonderful thing, and there’s nothing better than seeing your action has made a world a better place – even for just one day – and you don’t need an explanation for that.

Depois de tudo o que disse, só quero partilhar algumas citações sobre o amor, esperando que o inspirem a encontrar o amor em tudo o que faz:

”I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious – your heart, your soul. Beauty one could get to know and fall in love with in one hour and cease to love it as speedily; but the soul one must learn to know. Believe me, nothing on earth is given without labour, even love, the most beautiful and natural of feelings.” – Leo Tolstoy

‘’Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.’’ – Lao Tzu

‘’In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.’’ – Maya Angelou

‘’The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.’’ – Victor Hugo

‘’I’m not saying that love always takes you to heaven. Your life can become a nightmare. But that said, it is worth taking the risk.’’ – Paulo Coelho

‘’When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.’’
Jimi Hendrix

‘’Just in case you have forgotten today: You matter. You are loved. You are worthy. You are magical.’’
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