Love is a beautiful thing; probably the most beautiful word in human history because it evokes the strongest and most powerful healing.
But unfortunately, love is also the most misused word ever. A lot of times, we confuse feelings like lust, obsession, and infatuation for love. The worst part is that even some traits that are obviously not out of love are termed to be love-driven. So love is an abused word basically.
But it is clear that there are certain qualities of love; certain things that differentiate love from every other feeling. And we have taken the time to show you how to know you are in love.
HOW TO KNOW YOU ARE IN LOVE
You want the person happy
This is simple. If you do not care about the happiness of someone, then chances are that you are not in love with them. When you love someone, you will want them to be happy.
Even in the case where their happiness lies with someone else, while you will indeed wish they were with you, you would be more interested in them being happy than being with you.
If you are not ready to release them even when you know they are not happy, then it is not love. Love selflessly wants happiness for the other person.
You are comfortable being yourself around them
When you constantly feel the need to pretend to be what you are not around someone, then it is a huge sign that you just might not be in love with them.
If you love them, you will be yourself and only yourself around them.
Apart from the fact that love makes you feel free, love also doesn’t lie to the other person.
You know they might not pick you but because you love them, you want them to know who you are.
Now, don’t get me wrong; it doesn’t mean that you do not sometimes want to look nice so you can be attractive to someone you love, it simply means that you are not obsessed with being vain or pretending to like and care about things you don’t like or put on another character because you want to trick them into falling for you.
You enjoy spending time with them
When you love someone, it is natural that you enjoy their company and what to spend time with them.
If the company of someone repels you, then you don’t need a seer to let you know that you are not in love with them.
However, that doesn’t mean you will not have a life apart from them and spend every minute of the day thinking about them.
No, it means you will make time to see them and spend time with them because you actually enjoy it.
You are willing to sacrifice for them
Love is sacrificial.
If your kind of “love” is all about you, then you don’t love the person.
You probably shouldn’t be calling it love or you will be an example of the people who abuse love. Love goes all out for the person.
If you find that you are ready to make sacrifices for someone’s happiness, then you love the person.
You forgive them
Yes, love forgives.
This is probably difficult for most people to hear but it is the truth.
Your lover will offend you because they are human and not perfect but if you are willing to forgive them for it, then you are ready to love.
In this case, it is a decision you will have to make because love is largely a choice.
That doesn’t mean you tolerate blatant and intentional wrongdoings but you are ready to forgive and move on, even if it has to be away from them.
You know their imperfections and still choose them
As mentioned above, your lover is not perfect. If you see no imperfection in the person, then you are either infatuated or obsessed.
Love is not exactly blind to faults, what love does is that it decides to close its eyes to the faults. So if you are well aware of the person’s flaws and you are still ready to say “I choose you despite all these,” then you are in love.
However, you will also love yourself enough not to stay with somebody whose flaws are abusive.
You are probably wondering why I didn’t include the usual clichéd points you find on the internet where you are told you think about the person all day, you feel as though you are floating and you always want to be with them.
The reason is that those are not signs of love; they are signs of infatuation or obsession or lust. Love is substantial; it is not determined by fickle things.
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