"Feelings" of love

I think "feeling" is just a generic term that people use because the myriad of emotions that come about when you love someone are difficult to pin down in a concise way. I find that people tend to get more hung up on "earning" love. Trust and respect (important components of healthy love) are earned but real love is always freely given.

 

Um, warm snugglies??? <ewww says my INTJ self>

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeEuFWLt3WU"]YouTube- Haddway-What is Love[/ame]


i think there are different kinds of love. the love that you feel for your family or yourself (or an object, or an idea) is not the same as the love you feel for your partner, and the love you feel at the start of a relationship is usually more intense than what you feel after you've grown more comfortable with each other, but it's still love. likewise, when your love is reciprocated it feels very differently to when it is unrequited, though both are shades of the same passionate emotion.

regardless, love is beautiful. beyond anything else, that we have the ability to give and receive love freely to each other is what makes us human, in my opinion.

 

It feels like there's a warm kitty inside my stomache that jumps about everytime Dove signs in and falls asleep all snug everytime we're together.

 

EEEEEEEEEEEEE
//snuggles nearly to death but stops short to feed you cake and snuggle some more but more gently this time

 

We hear love being described as being "in love" or "feeling" in love, but does true/authentic love between two people always manifest in "feelings" of love?

I can't imagine loving someone without experiencing some sort of positive feeling. I'm not sure if I understand your reference to "feelings", though. Are you asking whether or not, or how closely in likeness or intensity, the feelings we experience match what 'society', the media, and the people around us tell us we 'should' feel? Or whether our experience of love looks like and feels like how love is presented to us?

Can you know that you care about someone without using these words or feeling these feelings as intensely as we are often expected to do?

I don't believe our feelings have to match a certain intensity or frequency to qualify as love. I think love is such an innate and naturally encompassing and transcending experience that it is unbridled by the limited language we have for it.

But, sure. Love is just a word we've been taught to use in association with certain feelings; however, if it wasn't that word, I do think it would be something else. I think feelings of love can be so strong, wonderful, and unique that we naturally seek to express and understand them, and because we use language to understand/make sense of our reality (and communicate it to others), we categorize this set of feelings as the word 'love'.

There are so many feelings, some quite intense, which are easily mistaken for love. And there also times when love sneaks up gradually without a bang, fireworks, or any romantic initiation. Is this any less love?

No.

Is love always accompanied by a feeling?

If love is both a feeling and a state, or an experience, then yes and no... maybe...

Do you need to "feel" in love in order to be "in love"?

Not by conventional standards, but maybe being 'in love' means 'feeling love' either as a separate emotion that is distinct from our wholly state and occasionally arises or living with a feeling of love as the norm?

// I hope at least some of that made sense.

 

Oh good! lol

 

Love...is the kind of feeling that you always want to be with that special someone...want to be close to him...want to open your heart to him. Even when you are apart, he is always on your mind...no matter where you are and what you do...

:rain:

 

I agree and I have finally had these feelings about a man. He feels the same way about me...I'm pretty sure he is ENTP.
However I have been married for 16 years and have never felt this way about my husband. I think he feels that way about me and I have convinced myself over the years that I love him. I just want to be with my new found love now. But I have two kids and I know a divorce would be devastating. Been torn up inside and don't know what to do!