What Is Love?

What is love?

Ask any number of people, and their will no doubt be poetic, full of imagery and loose metaphor. Indeed, love is primarily just a word invented by humans to describe an emotion, and so by its very nature is eternally difficult to describe. But, despite of this there is some science behind it all. And chemical imbalances in your brain are often to blame for the joy and ecstasy you may feel whilst being 'in love'. Love is thought to develop over a series of 'stages'. These stages are:

Lust
Attraction
Attachment

Lust:

is there to help expose people to others, and is the initial sexual desire. It promotes mating on a very instinctive level, and involves the a heightened release of chemicals such as testosterone in males and estrogen in females. The initial effects of lust don't very often last longer than a few weeks or months, before the more specific attraction sets in.

Attraction:

is a lot more specific to an individual and marks the start of a romantic desire for a particular person with regards to their candidacy for partnership. It develops out of lust as commitment to an individual partner expands. Studies have shown that as a relationship develops and people start to fall in love, the brain releases a steady stream of chemicals including dopamine, pheromones, serotonin, and norepinephrine. These chemicals act in a manner similar to that of amphetamines, stimulating the brain's pleasure centers, leading to side effects such as a loss of appetite, an intense feeling of excitement, and an increased heart rate.

These first two 'stages' of love are considered temporary, and so the third one, attachment, is deemed to be needed in order to for long-term relationships. During attachment, a bond forms that helps to promote relationships the could go on to last for many years and even decades.

Attachment:

is based on commitments - commitments such as marriage and children - or mutual friendships based on shared interests etc. Higher levels of chemicals like vasopressin and oxytocin have been linked more to long-term relationships as opposed to short-term relationships.

Of course, the above 'stages' refer to interpersonal love. That is, the love between two human beings. But we can also be said to love objects, goals, or principles if we value them greatly and are deeply committed to it, which is known as an impersonal love.

Perhaps the best way to sum up what love is, is the following quote:

~ Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.~ William Parrish, from the film Meet Joe Black

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Anonymous 74% helpful

What is love ? When you love someone youll stop your entire world for them when you love some one youll live on the streets together and call each other love bums when you love some one youll run away together leaving everything behind even if you get in trouble when you love some one and there away from you but you still have contact with them youll be waiting at the mailbox for the mailman to get there or by the phone to get a call from them when you love some one youll fight and go home and when she calls youll be running to the phone to pick it up and when she says i cant go to sleep if youre not next to me in bed and even though you just got home because you guys had a fight and its three in the morning youll try to be tough guy and be like no ill see you tomorrow but then she asks you again and you give in and walk all the way back to where you had just came from and when you guys see each other youll give each other a big hug and even though its only been a couple minutes to an hour youll say i missed youwhen your in love and there away from you just thinking about gives you that pain in your throat and youll do whatever it takes just to get to them when your in love you feel incomplete without them and then when you guys make love and shes on top of you or your on top of her youll stop in the middle of making love and be like i missed you and just hug each other while your inside of her just squeezing her never wanting to let her go when your in love a day apart from each other seems like an eternity and you cant wait to be with them the following day when your in love you tell them i am gonna be here no matter what!!! And she says promise i promise man love is the best feeling ever i would trade everything for real true love i would trade diamonds and pearls rolexs and mansions and rolls rocyes and all the money in the world for real true love and grow old with them and have dozen babys to just be cuddling with them taking a shower with them or bubble bath when your in love dont take it for granted appreciate every moment you have with that person cause before you know it they wont be there and all your left with are memories and youll try to block them out but you cant so when your in love enjoy every second with that person stick with them through bad times and good times when your in love youll probably write as much as i did because thats what love makes you do well thats my answer for the big l>word okay sorry if it was to long or boring but thats what i think love is okay let me know what you think if you want! Smile now cry later!

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Anonymous 69% helpful

Love is a force that draws one to another, creating a feeling of happiness and pleasure, and desire to share feelings and experiences. It is often spawned from an initial feeling of attraction, but ultimately is fueled by feelings of a bond between the two. Love need not be returned, unlike friendship. One can love another and the other feeling at all drawn to the one in love. Love can hurt as bad as anything imagineable. Love is not for the weak of heart, it can take all your strength to endure loving someone who does not love you. My advice is to seek out, make, and maintain friendships. You need not seek love because it will find you.

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Mark Westbrook 66% helpful

Ah, the eternal question. I'll give it a go. Love is an intangible thing. People should probably not put too much faith or belief in love because love is not something that they can touch and faith and belief is needed in something that cannot be tested or explored pragmatically.

Love doesn't actually exist. Love is just a word that means a sum of many things. It can encompass friendship, kinship, sexual lust, mental connection, physical connection and a bond. The word love is without value.

But what about the feeling of Love? Well, we certainly enjoy how we feel when we are 'in love'. But isn't just love merely a confirmation that we aren't alone in the world and that someone enjoys making you feel good? Don't we like how it makes us feel and vice versa?

I'm not suggesting that love isn't real, i'm suggesting that we should look at love differently. A relationship cannot be built on an idea, it must be built on the firm foundation of friendship, trust, mutual respect, and a physical and mental connection that includes lust and affection.

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Anonymous 65% helpful

Love is a feeling you grow for someone, love develops when you care for someone deeply and you cant imagine life ith out them.
I think those are the main facts of love but, their are different kind of loves like love between your bf/gf, or love with your family, or even love for a pet.
But when you say its love at first sight, that may be abit of love there, but I think that is more alike lust, cause love and lust have a thing line so watch out :D

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Georgina Hall 65% helpful

It depends on the love you are discussing - the love of a family, the love of a friend, or the love a partner. The love of a family is the sense of care and protection. You feel as though you would sacrafise anything to protect them, and you care only for their health and happiness. The love of a friend is where you support someone. You needn't feel for them fondly, just care for them. You are there to support them, and to help them when they need it. The love of a partner is where you feel very fondly towards someone. I am in love, and I describe it as a gooey, warm feeling inside, that brings you joy and happiness. You feel safe when they are around, and can truly trust them with anything. You will care for them no matter what. If you feel love, it for you love them for their personalities, not for what they look like. You love them for who they are, and not who they are trying to be.

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Elisha Hildebrand 59% helpful

This is a question that gets asked a lot. My believe is this, Love is something remarkable, unconditional, beautiful, and complicated, Its remarkable because when you love someone you take a adventure, a journey into a world of unknown. You don’t know what’s coming your way and what’s going to happen but you know that its all going to worth it. Its unconditional because we don’t make the chose to love someone are heart makes it for us. An no madder how much we try not to love that person we cant change it, what’s been made has been made. Its beautiful because love is combined into many segments. An its complicated because love takes you into many different directions. An we no when were in love with someone because we feel it in are heart. I cant really say what you will feel because everyone experiences it different. That’s what makes your love different for every one else’s. But sometimes we do have a tendency to mistake that feeling for something less then love. How can we tell the difference are instincts will tell us when its real.

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Anonymous 55% helpful

Love is the greatest ineffability in the globe.
It is, above all, God's benefaction to mankind.
It is hard to define, philosophers and poets like to probe.
The easiest way to describe are two hearts combined.

The foremost precedence is to love your Creator,
The arduous task is to cherish your antagonist,
A person who has no sense of adoration is a traitor,
It belongs to everybody not just protagonist.

The essence of love is kindness,
A lovable person is always solicitous.
Absence of amorousness is harshness.
The existence of fondness is felicitous.

The quintessence of affection is veracity.
The intention of love is familiarity.
Use the heart to achieve capacity.
People involved should live in prosperity.

If you love other, you do selfless thing.
You do thing which do not benefit your satisfaction.
It is not how long you mutually cling.
But how much love you put into action.

(C) By Ngeng G. Yeo

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Anonymous 58% helpful

Love is extremely confusing. When your in love sometimes you can never tell because of what your past relationships have done to you. And when you actually find the one that you think is "the one" and he treats you like no other kind of like a princess, you tend to get scared to let him have your heart because all your thinking about is your past. My advice to you, is to let it go its the past for a reason focus on your future and what you have now dont let your past relationships mess up what you have now live day by day and focus on moving forward with the one that you think is always going to be there! Focus on him or her!!!

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Clarissa Schotanus 44% helpful

Love is the feeling u get when u see the one u love,
the butterflies start fluttering in your stomach,
hear your heart loud in your ears,
when you would stop any thing to be with 'the one',
when you get jelous when the talk to someone else,
when you would do any thing for them u know you love them :)
u could love a best friend,
your family,
you could be passionate for some thing like a animal or hobby,
or it could be your partner
everyone experiences love diffrently

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Anonymous 45% helpful

Love is many things. When you are with your best friend of the opposite sex or same sex, whichever you choose, and they make you feel so good every time you are with them. You have a tingling feeling everytime you see them or hear their voice. You just want to be with them all of the time. They make you feel special and you just can't live without them. You miss them when they are gone and just can't get enough of them. That's what love is to me.

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Rico Ruiz 41% helpful

Love has many sides, love for your friends, family, pets, an object, a place or a singular person. For your family you would sacrifice anything for them the same as friends an pets, for an object or place it varies depending on sentimental value to you, for a single person tho sometimes more it is the sound of their voice, their footsteps, their breathing, their heart that instantly makes you feel warm inside and safe an like on cloud 9.

The touch of their hand on your arm or the touch of their lips on your cheek or even looking into each others eyes makes you smile and never want the moment to end to wish it would go on for eternity, a single word from them even just a hey makes your heart race and fill you with the need just to run into their arms, to know all their mistakes their flaws an differences and still want them for who they are, to be able to act your self around them and not hide a single thing from them, to feel like no one else exists or matters when your together, to feel a emptiness a desolation a loss as soon as your apart, a huge sense of sadness even only a few rooms away.

The feeling of elation an joy when you see each other even after a minute, longing to be in the others arms when you apart, the feeling of being unable to express the magnitude of what you feel for them, that the words i love you are too small to convey the depth the unfathomable-ness of how much you love them that the words some how are inadequate for what you truly feel, the feeling and knowing that you would scarifies an do anything for them to smile one more time, to be able to comprehend that you would actually give your life up without fighting to live just to let them live, to want to just make them happy no matter what, to think of them about them non stop even tho sometimes you don't realize it, to trust them completely, respect, accept, support them unconditionally not minding their quirks an peculiarities that they have, to understand them and what they go through and have gone through, its hard to explain love though I have tried

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