What Do You Say Love Is?

To put it simply:
I say love is awareness and understanding.
Love is not a feeling.
Love is not doing the right thing.
If one truly has awareness and understanding, they do not have to "try" and be a loving person to themselves and others; they naturally ARE a loving person and do the right thing.
The more we are aware and the more we understand, the more we love.

What do you say love is?

* (Please know that this is a place to share. We are not in this forum to prove ourselves right or the other wrong. We may and likely will disagree with each other, but this is not a place to debate. Debate is best done privately.)

Love is a mental state that is concerned with the freedom and happiness of others.

God is love.

Thank You for adding that Webgoji
The more we are aware and understand who we are, the more we are concerned with the happiness and freedom of others.

Thank You for adding that IrisBloom
The more we are aware and understand who we are, the more we realize that there is a God and God is Love.

Love is:
acceptance
understanding
trustful
honest
pain
kind
selfless

I'm just glad I'm finally able to participate in a thread like this. Within the last few months is the first time in my life I've experienced this thing called love.

The original Greek word is 'agape' which encompasses love of mankind and God, much more than romantic love (although it's often chosen for weddings). It's probably my favourite bible reading and I try to live by it.

i think it is what pre said

For me, love is those moments when time seems to stop, my breath is taken away, and tears flow from my eyes.

Love is eternal. Love is immortal. Love conquers all.

To answere I would say, we come from the same source of understanding.

Something you share...

Something you're able to get back in return.

Love is so many things and can be defined in so many ways. Actually FEELING love is a whole other ball game ...

acceptance and understanding

As much as I feel uncomfortable throwing the word "love" with people I know (even though I feel that way in the inside), I think it's a wonderful feeling, but sometimes I also think it's disturbing.

To me, love is that feeling which makes me want to throw up and cut the awkward, butterfly feeling from my stomach. Afterwards, I realize that maybe this love could make me even happier than I am now, so... it makes me happy. Vague, I know, but I'm still not so sure about "love" at this point...

This is good topic as i am feeling kind of cold. For some reason love feeling seem not to be around. So what is love? I felt few days ago love pouring into me from spirits or something and i wondered where it went because i am not feeling it anymore. I worked on feeling love for myself and others (even the ones who hurt me) because of what i was going through. I knew I had to turn the negative feelings and send out love, but now, i just feel empty.

So this topic came at a good time for me.

Love is a binding agreement I make within myself to look out for/care for, others, and myself, seperate from how I am treated, by what, or whom. Love is the emotion/idea that prevents myself from reacting negatively to negativity. By avoiding becoming a part of the cycle of negativity, I am best caring for myself, and those with whom I am associated.

To say that I avoid reacting negatively to negativity is not saying that I am passive, but, it is my choice to choose a positive reaction whenever I am able. Being imperfect, I am not always able.

I'm not sure. Sometimes you have to accept that love will usually have a condition to it. Unconditional love is quite rare and probably not even possible. We are usually getting something when we show love and give love. Sometimes you get something physical in return. Other times you're getting something non-physical. You're usually getting something when it comes to love though. Usually dopamine. The never-ending mission to get dopamine. Though people do like to throw the term around. Others also like to try and apply deeper meaning to "love" or they try to make it sound deep when in reality it isn't really all that deep at all.

A confusing idea- I love my dog but I can also love a girl. Same word, different meanings. I'm not able to have sex with my dog and I can't have long emotional talks with my dog where we can show understanding of one another. (Though I probably could actually-) Though I still love my dog. When it comes to a girl the only difference is that we can have sex and do normal romantic stuff. Along with a possible understanding of one another because we as humans love to be understood and recognized. It's not as much as loving a person but more finding someone that you're able to connect with and feel free with that doesn't judge you. The dog doesn't judge you if you want to talk about anything. Hopefully the other person you want to share love with doesn't either.

I am sort of just throwing goop at a wall and seeing if anything sticks.

*cough*

Though that is not how every relationship works out. Sometimes it is solely physical and a way to secure dopamine. For sex only. People will still say it's love though. They love the other person because they give them sex. Well more like they just love sex. They love money. They love power. etc etc etc. For some that is okay, for me it would seem a bit tiring and a shallow existence. I wouldn't really want to deal with someone who doesn't understand and accept me for me. I think I'll stick with the dog and my hand.

In the case of the dog. The dog loves you because you feed it. We use the dog to get another form of love. Soft furry and cuddly love that will listen to anything you say without judging you. Mainly because they don't understand most words. A lot of times people just want to talk to a wall with a pulse. We can still get limited physical love from a dog or a cat. Any animal really. Just being able to hug something is nice.



Another thought, friendships. What about those. Is it possible to share deep feelings with your friends. When does it cross from a like to a love. A bromance. I guess that is up to you to decide. Some people can actually love their friends. A lot of people like their friends. How many love their friends though?

...

I guess my thought is that love is the ability to share deep feelings with another being. The feelings you normally wouldn't share with just anyone.

I definitely love friends, although I don't say it in words but hope I do in my actions as in the words of a great song:

Whether those friends love me in return I don't know but in a way it doesn't really matter I'm just happy to have them in my life.

Love is paying it forward

One of my favorite quotes is from Kurt Vonnegut "love whoever is around to be loved"

It sounds so simple & pretty and ideal.

But whoa, it is hard to do! How to love people that you admittedly don't like? The associations that come with the word 'love' are overwhelming. It is too big of a word, too epic- can sometimes be sentimental and over dramatic.

Then I came across this interpretation from Karen Armstrong's book Twelve Steps to Compassionate Life... unconditional helpfulness.

I don't have to make some big gesture or have a strong emotion to love. I just practice being unconditionally helpful to whoever comes my way. That's doable. That's a start. Maybe I can even be allowed to do it grudgingly . Maybe it is the act of helping that begins a softening toward some connection of shared humanity... or what not. That is what I am currently tinkering around with anyhow.