What does it mean to you to be in love with a partner? (1 Viewer)

[kisshuhua09baby]

I'm aroace so the way I answer a question like this is a mixed bag
For me, being loved as a partner is no different than the feeling of love you have for a younger sibling or mother because all humans seek from interpersonal relationships is to be recognized cherished and protected.
I'm not saying I love my gf like a brother or vice versa but there's no true ddistinction in the type of love I can have for either

 

[athenaaa]

A nonjudgmental type of love. Someone who wants me to be the best version of myself, but won’t change me into someone I don’t recognize. Someone who encourages me to learn new things.

 

[HugeBakkaeMotae]

It depends because to me there are multiple different types of love, there's familial, romantic and many more. In addition there is true love and 'in love', true love to me in a romantic sense is something nonquantifiable and selfless - it is not a list of conditions and requirements and you only know it once you feel it and because it is so rare most people have only experienced powerful infatuation which is easily mistaken for true love (or what I just call real love).

True love is never forgotten, not now and not several decades from now. It does not go away even if you grow to hate that person, in many ways it's similar to the love one might have for a child although not quite as unconditional - romantic love is sadly never unconditional because it is not inherent like the feelings you have for a child.

'In love' (to me, and not everyone might agree) is a simple combination of attraction and liking somebody (in a lack of a better term) and while it's a lot more simple and often fleeting it's not necessarily less intense, it is often almost indistinguishable from other kinds in the short term but it does not last and such relationships often endure by evolving into a co-dependancy or taking on a transactional nature.

Here's what I suggest to younger people who might be reading; do not worry so much about what you should do or labeling things, that is not what any kind of love should be about. The best things will happen to you when when you aren't trying so hard anyway. Instead focus on teaching yourself to approach every facet of life with deliberation and forethought, in simpler terms; try to be someone who doesn't make mistakes instead of constantly trying to avoid them.

As different types of love become more distinguishable I find myself wishing I had used the word less because there have been many times where I wish I could express it more sincerely than I can and the only way to do that is to let the words have weight. (The same goes for apologizing, if you're always doing it you don't seem sincere when you're truly remorseful) You'll also notice I'm emphasizing "to me" a lot, that is because these are my feelings and not objective facts so take it with a grain of salt and feel free to disagree, we're all different and process feelings in different ways.

 

[Ahsoka]

It feels really hard to quantify. There’s lots of types of love with different flavors to each, but no matter how hard I try I wouldn’t be able to explain it perfectly or come up with criteria that can tell me whether I’d love someone or not just with that. To me it’s more a feeling with someone, though things like complementing each other and making each other better than before is kind of a requirement at the same time. It’s complicated