What is love, is a question many people ask at some point in their lives. We're bought up with images of hearts and flowers to represent love, and exposed to movies and books which illustrate love as being a powerful emotion. But beyond this, we're not given much information about the true nature of love.

Young people sometimes wonder if they are in love, because they've had little experience with relationships and aren't sure how to recognize love when it comes knocking. More mature adults can still feel perplexed when it comes to love, despite having had numerous relationships, some of a romantic nature and others which are platonic.

What most of us want to know is that we are, in fact, loved. Without a tool to measure love by, we may find it can be hard to distinguish love from like, or factors such as obligation, friendship and the need to be close to someone. Phrases such as, "love hurts", and "love is blind," can give us the wrong idea about love, and leave us imagining that it's like a spider that may lure us into it's web, rather than something wonderful.

Romantic love is often described as being different to other types of love, and more special. However, you may love a friend, relative or even a pet very deeply. This type of love doesn't have a lesser value to one which involves physical intimacy.

While we mostly agree that humans have the ability to love one another, whether or not animals show real love is often disputed. Sceptics explain away altruistic animal behavior as stemming from a species need to protect each other in order to survive. However it's typical of human beings to assume they're the only ones to be able to show higher emotions, despite evidence to the contrary.

Hero dog rescues friend

Just as sceptics may ponder whether or not behavior which seems loving in the animal kingdom is really about true love, or is behavior which occurs for another reason, people may feel unsure about whether the love they seem to share in a relationship is real or not. Sometimes relationships fall into a rut, and the excitement of new love fades into complacency. However true love does have one distinguishing feature we all can recognize.

• Unconditional - Real love is unconditional. It doesn't have any expectations. It may have hope, but it expects nothing in return for the gift it gives. Like-wise, when one person loves another, they do so without any expectation about getting anything back.

We often speak of certain behaviors which occur in loving relationships. These can help us understand more about love, and whether we're lucky enough to be on the receiving end of it too.

• Honesty - People who love each other tend to be honest with each other, unless they have good reason to shield the other person from emotional harm, for the other persons good, rather than their own.
• Trust - Likewise, people who love each other are likely to have trust between them. They know they can tell each other anything, and the secret will be kept. They know they can rely on each other.
• Gentleness - Real love isn't violent or aggressive. Love shouldn't hurt. Romantic love may sometimes come with passion, but all the excitement is about physical and emotional intimacy entwined. It's not about anger, jealousy, or a need to control.

You'll know if you are loved because you'll be able to be yourself in totality in front of the other person in question. You'll know they'll still care about you, even if your appearance is a mess, you've failed in your career or made a fool of yourself. This is because true love has a forgiving nature.

References,

new-age-spirituality.com