29 May Happiness – to love and be loved
There are few things more important for our happiness than loving and being loved.
And crucial within that, is self-love.
Yet so many of us find this so difficult.
And if we can’t love ourselves, can we really love others?
In this post I’m sharing TWO articles from Psychology Today that provide some great reading on these topics.
First up, via Glenn Geher, is all about the psychology of feeling unloved and it begins with this…
Thought experiment: You have to decide between one of two lives.
In life A, you are fortunate to have been brought up in a very wealthy family and it is clear that you will never have financial concerns as long as you live. Yet, as bad fortune would have it, in this life, you have never found love. And this fact cuts across relationship types. You have a lukewarm relationship with your parents and siblings. And in spite of paying for the upgraded version of every dating app that you can think of, you have never found a special someone, to the point that you’ve kind of given up on thinking that it might even be possible. And you often feel lonely, in spite of all your material riches.
In life B, conversely, you are deeply in love with someone whom you are sure is the person of your dreams—your soulmate, as it were. You share everything together on a daily basis and you each find so much joy spending time together—even in such mundane events as going through the Burger King drive-through together. And you trust one another in every single way—completely. This said, you and your partner are often in over your heads financially and you find yourself struggling to pay your bills on time each and every month. You manage, but it’s not easy.
I don’t know about you, but personally, I’d choose Life B; love without money. No question…
… keep reading the full article HERE
Next up is an article by Robert Johansen that focuses on “the nuts and bolts of self-love” and the key points it presents are …
- Loving yourself usually requires having some concept of who you are.
- The nuts and bolts of self-love may have their greatest usefulness, and their most difficult application, on the landscape of a relationship.
- Other-love may come in direct proportion to self-love…
… keep reading Johansen’s article HERE