What Is Love?

[Coxhere]

What is love to you? How would you define the word, "love?" For me, a definition for love seems to change. Love is an intense feeling. Sometimes, for me, love can be part of a mixture of feelings where the feelings are so intwined that love cannot, seemingly, be extracted. Love can be subliminal, surreptitious, strange, beyond description. And then, sometimes I think that love doesn't even exist.

The Greeks had three words for love.

• Eros:
  This word refers to romantic or passionate love, often associated with sexual desire and physical attraction.
  
  
• Philia:
  This word signifies deep friendship and affection, characterized by loyalty, shared values, and camaraderie.
  
  
• Agape:
  This word represents unconditional, selfless love, often associated with divine love or love for humanity.
  
  While these are the most prominent, other Greek words also convey different nuances of love, such as storge (familial love) and philautia (self-love).

 

[Good boy]

Im actually working in therapy to understand and learn myself how use my emotions the right way. I'll paste you here a post i wrote here on this forum months ago:

I'm all about love. I'm thinking about love and trying to express myself through love. When I talk, eat, sleep, or do anything, it's filled with love. I'm breathing love. Even when I do something embarrassing, I feel love there too. I'm in therapy, learning how to manage these feelings in a healthy way.

Specific ways I express love are when I help or support other people, when I learn about myself and take care of myself, and when I'm cuddling with my kids and sometimes with my wife.

Going to sleep is my favorite time. I have bamboo pajamas, and I love the sensation of them touching my body. I'm wearing a diaper, and that makes me feel full of love and secure. I use a weighted blanket with bamboo sheets, which makes me feel very loved. I used to have a doll that I slept with and felt so loved by, but I outgrew that. In the morning, I have my best time of the day when I physically feel like I'm giving out love as I drink my coffee and let my diaper naturally fill with urine and feces and by sitting in it for over an hour every day makes me feel like I'm a part of love.

 

[Coxhere]

Im actually working in therapy to understand and learn myself how use my emotions the right way. I'll paste you here a post i wrote here on this forum months ago:

I'm all about love. I'm thinking about love and trying to express myself through love. When I talk, eat, sleep, or do anything, it's filled with love. I'm breathing love. Even when I do something embarrassing, I feel love there too. I'm in therapy, learning how to manage these feelings in a healthy way.

Specific ways I express love are when I help or support other people, when I learn about myself and take care of myself, and when I'm cuddling with my kids and sometimes with my wife.

Going to sleep is my favorite time. I have bamboo pajamas, and I love the sensation of them touching my body. I'm wearing a diaper, and that makes me feel full of love and secure. I use a weighted blanket with bamboo sheets, which makes me feel very loved. I used to have a doll that I slept with and felt so loved by, but I outgrew that. In the morning, I have my best time of the day when I physically feel like I'm giving out love as I drink my coffee and let my diaper naturally fill with urine and feces and by sitting in it for over an hour every day makes me feel like I'm a part of love.

You ARE love! I like that!

 

[Hazel_1914]

Love is to will the good of another. There is no love without sacrifice, and there is no worthwhile sacrifice without love.

It is freely chosen and freely given--the manifestation of charity.

 

[JayCee]

Agape ...sexual desire as in eros ,fun sex . does not necessarily lead to , what imho is more along the lines of true Love . but am quite sure many have their own veiws of what love may feel like .

 

[Rodafina]

I have a rudimentary idea of love and just think of it as the next step up from 'like.' I don't reserve the word for a very intense or complicated feeling.

 

[Aspychata]

When you can't forget them.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

As someone with autism, with alexithymia, and has been with the same woman for 40 years, all I can figure out is that personally, I am not sure what I am feeling at any given time. 99% of the time, if someone asked me how I feel or felt, the word I would describe would be "neutral". Now, it's not to say I am incapable of emotion, in fact, the reality is that I do feel the extremes, and I don't like that sensation. I feel out of control.

Now, when it comes to my wife, I know that I express and feel my love for her through physical touch...holding hands, hugs, kissing, cuddling on the couch, and so on. The times that we are separated...one or the other at a medical conference for a few days...I really get a weird and strange sensation. I don't know what it is, but one thing I do know is that I do not have feelings of "missing someone", and when it's my wife, someone I think I should miss, it is a bit unsettling to me. This is the person I would die for...without hesitation. She gives me peace (most of the time ) and is the person I can come home to, get a long, warm hug and a kiss...she is tranquility...home. That's more valuable to me than anything.

I know she loves me and stays with me because she wants to, not because she needs to. She doesn't "need" me, per se. She has her own career and money, her own friends, her family, etc. Yet, 40 years later, she's there.

That said, with my autism-related "mind-blindness" I never know what she is thinking...ever. I don't even think about it anymore, it is what it is, and I've simply gotten in the habit of asking. My brain and hers are on two totally different wavelengths, so neither of us can assume anything from each other...and for us, this has actually created a situation where we DO communicate well with each other. Furthermore, we can complement each other, each having a particular set of skills that we can use together.

So, when someone asks "What is love?" frankly, I couldn't describe it. It's like trying to describe something that is all around you but you can't see, touch, hear, or taste it. I know, for myself, the best sensations I could come up with is that it is warmth, contentment, peace, and tranquility.