Love, just as the wind, can only truly be understood by experiencing its effects. Therefore, one can talk about love only through the prism of its manifestations which have been observed not only in interpersonal relationships but also in an individual himself or herself.
The Attitude of love
- When a person is filled with love, it is reflected in their feelings, thoughts, motivations and reactions to their surrounding reality, including other people.
The Feelings of love
Love is manifested through feelings, such as happiness, joy, personal satisfaction, trust in one’s own potential and ability to cope with life’s challenges. These feelings are also accompanied by gratitude and humility.
The Thoughts of love
Thoughts filled with love are calm and concentrate only on what happens in the present moment – the “here and now”.
The Motivations of love
Love provides motivation for self-development and activity in areas that correspond with one’s predispositions and talents.
The Reactions of love
The Reactions to one’s reality that are characteristic of love involve curiosity and openness to experience. A person filled with love is especially sensitive to the beauty and harmony of nature. When problems arise, love activates all of a person’s resources, knowledge, experience, ability, intuition and a strong belief that any encountered difficulties can be solved. As such, every problem is perceived as a valuable life lesson.
- When a person is under the influence of love, he or she takes a specific attitude towards other people. It is characterized by empathy – the ability to feel what another person is experiencing – and also by autonomy – psychological independence. An Indication of such independence includes, but is not limited to, a lack of focus of one’s attention on the approval of other people.
In addition:
– In relations with those in need, love manifests itself in an interest in their situation and the undertaken actions to support them – in a form and to an extent that is possible to accomplish,
– As a reaction to anger and aggression of other people, love creates an assertive attitude: the ability to set boundaries and calmly express one’s stance and needs while respecting the aggressor as a human being,
– In relations with our close ones, apart from concern, kindness, and respect for them, love releases the need to support them in building their own attitude of love.
Sources of love
People have two basic sources of love at their disposal: the first – external, which includes other people and their love towards us, and the second one – internal, which is hidden in each of us. We all possess our own independent and inexhaustible source of love. It belongs within the so-called spiritual sphere. This is the only source that releases the attitude of love.
A call for building an attitude of love.
A call for building an attitude of love is inscribed in human nature. It is manifested through the need of love, which draws attention and releases the motivation and commitment to search for it. In our first years of life, other people are our main source of love. Later, in adult life, every person – as a result of his or her free will and certain actions (such as, for example, the development of self-consciousness, meditation, prayer, mindfulness) – should “switch over” to their internal source of love. If one fails to answer the call for building an attitude of love and no indispensable transformation (from the Greek metanoia, or Latin conversio) takes place, it may result in difficulties in life, conflicts, health problems, as well as a lack of happiness and joy in life.