How Do I Know If Someone is My Soul Mate?
How to express love? That’s a question many young people as well as older people ponder when they first start their relationships. However, love isn’t a tangible commodity like money is. Love is an enduring and strong emotional connection between two lovers or spouses who are in an equally passionate, happy and fulfilling relationship. An example of love is the deep emotional connection shared between a newlywed couple who have been married for decades and who still care deeply about each other and are passionate about making and sharing a life together.
In order to understand love, it’s important to recognize three major categories of relatedness: physical attraction, emotional attraction and romantic love. Physical attraction is what happens when two people feel a bond for a specific person, a person they consider to be sexy or attractive. Emotional attraction is linked to deep feelings that are felt by the person being attracted to that person. Romantic love on the other hand is defined as a unique form of intense, long-lasting passion and emotional attachment. While all three types of intimacy are important in romantic relationships, there is one type of intimacy that is often overlooked in the quest for love: emotional intimacy.
Self-love, in its most basic form, is becoming comfortable with and accepting yourself. In other words, you are loving yourself and others because you feel good about yourself. Many times we fall into a rut and fail to stimulate our inner passions because of our misconceptions about ourselves. We believe that we are worthy only of small, submissive acts, such as cuddling and kissing; or we believe that we are only worth the bare minimum, which is typically a mediocre, submissive level of affection. In short, we fall into a state of settling for less than what we feel is best.
To move beyond the ruts of inadequacy, we need to begin to let go of our misconceptions about ourselves. We do not deserve to be loved; instead, we deserve love. We can learn to love ourselves more and be more worthy of love from another person. If we choose to give our love to another person, it is important that we don’t allow our own insecurities to prevent us from giving that love. Rather than focusing on our weaknesses, we should spend time focusing on our strengths.
Emotional intimacy is often a difficult concept for many to understand. However, when we are comfortable with our own self-love, we will find that sharing our feelings with another person is much easier and less painful. Instead of obsessing over the opinions and judgment of others, we can focus on our true qualities and feelings. This can greatly increase the depth of our relationships with other people and make them far more special than they initially appear. After all, we already know that we are unique and special.
It is possible to develop these abilities and learn to experience emotional intimacy in all relationships. When you find that you are drawn towards another person and they seem like a great partner, you may have found the beginning of a great relationship. Appreciate the closeness you share and remember that the opinions of others are meaningless when put into perspective of who you truly are. Your personal qualities will overwhelm the opinions of others and you will discover that the love you feel is stronger than any comparison.
