What Is Love? Even ‘Unconditional Love’ Seems To Have Conditions Nowadays
What is love? People spout love quotes, quotes about love, and unconditional support all day long. But do they really understand the meanings behind the words?
Lao Tzu has an interesting take on the topic and is as follows.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
In relation, if someone tells you the fastest, easiest way to crush him or her, he or she trusts you enough for you not to do it. When allowing your feelings to “take the wheel,” you often overlook the potential dangers of love — or more so, the your pending vulnerabilities.
Accordingly, regardless of his or her defensive responses, everyone desires to be needed and wanted. Pushing pass the hurt and pain from previous relationship problems — as well as unrequested relationship advice — it can be literally scary to risk such agony again and again.
Love Quotes. Unconditional love is about trust.
By concurrence, Tzu makes those two points. People gain strength and are encouraged when they feel desired and loved. It’s natural. It’s addicting. While yet extending the same grace takes the aforementioned courage — the risk of opening your heart, becoming absolutely vulnerable and susceptible to attack, showing your weaknesses and sharing your fears, and trusting someone to not hurt you after gaining all this information — it’s not as easy and comforting as receiving it.
why are we programmed to love something or someone regardless of the pain that has been caused by them
— ? (@kvttycat) February 16, 2015
This is where the “conditions” come into play. Though it’s contrary to the concept of unconditional love — and though trust is a conditional element — the topic deserves further insight.
Former Brigham Young University (BYU) President, Cecil O. Samuelson, speaks on such an issue during one of his devotions.
“While love and trust are often linked and even intertwined, there are some very significant differences. We hold unconditional love to be a very high virtue. Trust, on the other hand, is conditional in that it must be earned and can be very easily and quickly forfeited.”
Can you still love people while not trusting them? Can you trust people who continuously do you wrong in the name of love? As the cliche’ says, love is blind, right?
It’s said that love is blind. All flaws, imperfection and even warnings seem to be overlooked or disregarded.
It can make you ask again, “what is love?” And in asking, different answers are possible because people have various images of love. Its meaning isn’t the same for everyone. Yet, there is one undeniable fact: it is always a constant.
The best feeling in the world is being loved back by the person you love.
— Drake (@DrakeNYC) February 16, 2015
Interestingly, neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson — who has been invited to speak at such prestigious universities as Harvard, Stanford and Oxford — offers a few intriguing quotes about love.
“Love is a lot like the air. It may be hard to see — but it’s in you and all around you… Love is woven into your day because it’s woven into your DNA: as our ancestors evolved over the last several million years, many scientists believe that love, broadly defined, has been the primary driving force behind the evolution of the brain. Bands of early humans that were particularly good at understanding and caring for each other out-competed less cooperative and loving bands, and thereby passed on the genes of empathy, bonding, friendship, altruism, romance, compassion, and kindness — the genes, in a word, of love.”
What are your thoughts on the topic? Feel free to like, share, comment and engage. Raise love-awareness.
you gotta fall in love with yourself before you can love anyone else — fran (@ohhhfrances) February 16, 2015
[Feature Image via Wallpapers In HQ]
