Love...Can someone explain it to me?

[Kiradalia]

Hi there! So, I just got my first boyfriend...But there's a drawback...I don't actually understand the concept of love. Not very good for the relationship, huh? In fact, even before I gained a significant other, I was wondering what love is like.

What does it feel like?
When you're in love, do you think differently?
How much does love mean to people?
And does the definition vary from person to person?

These questions just keep appearing in my mind. I've asked a lot of people, but I still feel like I don't know nearly enough. I just don't understand and truthfully, I feel like that's wrong somehow. Especially since I'm about a month or so away from turning eighteen. You'd think I'd get it by now... confused

So, can someone explain the concept to me?
Even if the definition isn't the same for everyone, if a bunch of people tell me what THEIR definition is, I think that I might get a better understanding.

So...help me out? Thanks a bunch!

Oh! Before I forget, I understand platonic love fine! I have no problems loving my friends and family. That comes naturally! biggrin
It's just romantic love and actually being in love that's really throwing me for a loop...  

[cool4]

Love for me really is just the platonic kind. I think I love them more then other people.

Though i think being in love with someone feels like you are totally comfortable with being yourself. you feel confident and haven't changed your own personal identity.

non platonic love means very little to me. maybe because I put family and friends first.

And definitions vary between people because interpretation of their feeling are different, I do believe overall they try to say the same thing with different words to describe it.

With my first boyfriend it took me a while to accept that I loved him, still do, even if we aren't together anymore, maybe it's because are friendships stronger than our relationship.  

[Aria-sama]

hard to say i only had friends and family that i love.

I guess if i was in love with someone deeply I would be happy to just be with that special someone and that person too would feel the same way. You will think that person is beautiful even with their flaws. I guess you will feel tingles when you touch and just being together and never apart in mind and spirit.  

[B!tchyNluvNit]

Age has nothing to do with how much you should know about love. I'm sure you could spend your entire life trying to define it and never quite getting everything. The feeling of love, I think, is similiar for everyone but their reactions are different.

If you understand platonic love you mostly understand romantic love, I think. Love from one to another romantically is just like love from friend to friend but with certain more things that you have to find out by yourself.  

[DvnT]

May I direct you HERE?
And, if you don't want to go to the trouble of clicking the link to another thread in this guild, I'll repost my definition of love.
Love is one thing, there is no difference between platonic and romantic, just different definitions and standards, I believe.

Love is a feeling that has no description. It is a feeling that if you try to describe it, you can go on forever and still not have even scratched the surface of it.
Love is a sea of emotion, and I just a tiny atom drowning in the endless waves of feeling.
Love is a storm cloud over head, rumbling. You can feel it, you can hear it as it speaks, you see it in every move it makes. It is there.
Love is a connection you have with someone on a soul deep level that takes your breath away. It stuns you and leaves you with no words left.
Love is the feeling you get of complete bliss just being in their arms, holding their hand, or seeing them smile.
Love is doing anything and everything in your power to make them happy.
Love is being the most perfect you can be, just to see them smile.
Love is wanting a person in ways you'd've never dreamt of other wise.
Love is a craving you get when you're away from them.
Love is a drug that changes you for life.
Love is a beautiful thing.
Love is exciting and calm, new and old.
Love is trusting and questioning "Do I deserve something this good?"
Love is hope and happiness.
Love is doing things that you wouldn't normally do, because they want it.
Love is scary and friendly.
Love is never questioning "Are they worth it?" It's knowing before you know why, that they are.
Love is acceptance.
Love is not shallow, it sees the beauty of the person inside, not the face.
Love is pure and never harmful.
Love is fun and playful.
Love is honest and caring.
Love is as close to perfection as we can get, all bottled up in one little word.
Love is more than just a chemical reaction, it is a physical need to be with a person.
Love is a longing that will never leave if they are not around.
Love is an attatchment so strong, it's like the bones of your ribs have opened up and wrapped themselves together, pushing your hearts together no matter what.
Love is happiness that reverberates through your whole life.
Love is something so strong that you have no choice but to give into it.
Love is something so sneaky, you don't even know you've fallen in love until it's too late to stop.
Love is the times when you call them just to hear their voice one last time before you go to bed.
Love is when you dream about a person, and when you wake up, you think the last few months have been a part of that dream, and it makes you want to cry because you love them so much.
Love is no longer caring about anything else because they are the only thing that matters anymore.
Love is knowing that if they were to leave you, you wouldn't be able to live.
Love is being so in sync with them, that you know exactly what they are thinking, when you're both silent.
Love is being humble when they say you're special in anyway, just because you'll know they'll keep talking and you can hear their voice, and their laugh, and hear the words flow together so perfectly in a way no one else could have done it, and it makes you believe -if only for the time- that you really are special.
Love is crying, when all you want to do is sing and scream and jump for joy, because the emotions are so strong that you physically can't do anything else.
Love is standing next to them, and thinking "Why would they choose me, if there are people like them in this world?"
Love is the getting warmth you've always wanted just from being in their arms.
Love is being able to feel that they feel the exact same way as you.
Love is the band-aid for the soul, it heals everything.
Love is indescribable.

 

[Garynook]

Love is a word without true meaning.

If you ask someone about love (in one word) you'd get a lot of different answers like:
caring,
compassion,
happiness,
friendship,
trust,
commitment,
comfort,
sex appeal and whatever.

Don't just take on what others think and tell us what you think it is.

I know it can be hard not having facts cover your a**. But let us instead, listen to this groovy song.  

[ButtonsGo63]

Love comes from the heart. It comes only so often when you feel a connection with somebody. To others, love is just going into a room and sharing body heat through a kiss/ sex. Others, it's a serious commitment and they want to take it seriously. To other people such as you asking what ''love'' means, you are the definition. You spread love through your actions, your words of choice even if it's just the simplest of things. If over-use it to show how you feel about someone, your not in love. Its just a word you use to cover up how you really feel. It can be a beautiful thing, and it can hurt you deeply. It doesnt come naturally, in my case. I think you're gonna have the wonderful relationship. Best of wishes to you and you boy friend! ^w^  

[Breaking The Skyline]

Love is a very interesting emotion with no definate meaning. There are many different ways to describe it and all are correct really it depends on the person. I personally would describe love as two people caring and looking out for each other. And of course they are loyal towards one another. And thats my basic definition. I could go more in depth on this topic but i think i might bore you if i do.  

[Lord_Scarecrow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DtErhZZkLk

Said perfectly.  

[KazuneSushi]

Love isn't really, as some of the others already said, describable. Then again, I wouldn't know, since I'm not sure if I've been in love. So avoid taking love advice from me. But one thing I do know is that if two people aren't caring for each other and just saying pretty things that make it look like they really love and know each other, it's not love. That's something that I've witnessed happening. Popular guy asks a girl ,who's in a couple of his classes but he barely knows, out. Didn't last long. Same thing happened with me, but I said no. Moral of this boring, uninteresting story: Someone you love is someone you could live with your whole life and be willing to take care of them all that while. Someone you can trust with all your heart.  

[flauterfli]

ooooohhh...thenext time I hear "I love you, but I'm not in love with you"... burning_eyes

Anyhow, love isn't a feeling at all. It isn't this overwhelming, heady rush of emotions that lead to an urge for quitting your job and flying overseas to spend the rest of your life homemaking for a poor but earnest man.

Orchestral scores will not cascade lusciously every time you lay eyes upon your lover, unfortunately. You will not ride off into the sunset to awake every morning, beside yourself with affection for the form lying beside you.

No. Love is not romance. The beginnings are sweet. That is the euphoric wooing you will experience with your first love, and perhaps the person you'll spend a lifetime with.

Yet all feelings (simple neuron reactions to chemical triggers in the brain) come to an end. Eventually they will begin again anew, but first labor must come before fruit is born.

Love is choosing to grin and bear it. To forgive, maybe never to forget, but to allow trust to weave its way back in. It is to show devotion when you'd rather just pack up and leave. For each person to give 60% all of the time, even if the other does not. Expressing disappointment with affection as to not allow resentment to build and implode with disastrous results. When something breaks each will vow to fix it rather than throw their love away.

Love is not poetry. It is not a poetical whim. The anecdotes associated with it (melodramatic cliches that most television "relationships" are based on) are only a brief phase before real love sets in. There is no "falling in" or "falling out" of love - all couples go through years of ups and downs and run arounds. Only time, commitment, and effort will allow a worthwhile love to thrive.

[/rant]

Good day. [=

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