What is Your Version of Love?
There are apparently about 55,000 definitions of the word love. And seeing that it is a month of love, we should reflect on what the word love means to each of us.
Personally, I have always thought that love means sacrifice, being the bigger person, allowing another person to be who they truly are and to let them choose. This could be pertaining to my lover, someone in my family, one of my friends, or anyone else. As long as they are free to be themselves, and in turn they could show me the same sort of freedom or love.
I have long since discovered that for me, this is not the true meaning of love.
Have you ever asked yourself, when someone says “I love you,” what do they actually mean? Does their definition of love match your own, or does it mean something different to them? If you could love and be loved without judgments and without any expectations from the other person... would your world not be more free?
This is a lot easier to say than to put into practice, because we are so consumed by societal expectations regarding what we should do, how to be with someone, and how we should love another person.
Have you ever found that you felt you were wrong about how you loved someone just because it doesn’t fit into someone else’s version of what it needs to look like?
My challenge for you is the following:
Write down what LOVE truly means to you.
For each meaning, ask yourself if it is actually yours or something you have been taught. You can also do this for your ideas on ‘self-love.’
If you think the idea is yours, ask yourself if that definition of love is truly what you desire in your life.
Be aware that when you say it to someone or someone says it to you that it may not have the same meaning.
The exercise is to make you more aware of what you expect and portray in love.
Be careful not to misunderstand the concept of there being different meanings of love. A different take on the idea does not mean it has a lesser meaning, it is just different to every individual.
Besides, don’t we all want to love and be loved in the way we truly desire?
Megan Rogers is a facilitator, motivation coach, and a body process practitioners from Cape Town, South Africa. She aspires to step up and demand the change that is required for herself, the world, and you, to be happy. She loves the ocean, being outdoors, and the change people are willing to be and do to save the planet and be more themselves. You can find more content from Megan at www.consciouslycrazychicks.com.
