Researchers at Harvard University have conducted a 75-year longitudinal research study that suggests love is the key to happiness and fulfillment in life. Love is a highly valued trait, but defining it behaviorally can be difficult. According to Dr. George Vaillant’s team, the Harvard study found that two ingredients were essential for a happy life: “One of them is love.” Another is to find a way to cope with life without pushing love away.
Identifying the Characteristics of Love
Many of us would love to be in a relationship, but we have many obstacles to overcome in order to allow love to freely flow throughout our lives. Many of us have ways to defend ourselves from love, and we can find it difficult to receive and give love with openness, vulnerability and ease. Love is closely linked to meaning and fulfillment. It’s important that we define love as a series of actions or an action we can take in order to get closer to those we love.
Cultivating Genuine Love
Overcoming these barriers requires us to understand and address our own defensiveness. Many of us have developed defense mechanisms that shield us from love, making it difficult to give and receive love openly and vulnerably. However, love is intricately linked to meaning and fulfillment in life. To cultivate a truly loving relationship, it’s essential to recognize love as a series of actions that bring us closer to our loved ones.
Essential Traits of Loving Relationships
Some key characteristics of a loving relationship include expressions of affection, both physical and emotional, a genuine desire to bring pleasure and satisfaction to our partners, tenderness, empathy, and compassion towards one another, a willingness to share activities and interests, open and honest communication, with a continuous exchange of feelings, providing care, comfort, and assistance to our loved ones.
Embracing Love’s Transformative Power
Love goes beyond selfishness and self-interest, nurturing each individual’s sense of self-worth and well-being. It’s important to note that love is never deceptive, as misleading someone can lead to a loss of their sense of reality. By understanding and embodying these principles of love, we can overcome our own defensiveness and build truly satisfying relationships that bring joy and fulfillment into our lives.
This post was written by a professional at Valenti Matchmaking. Valenti Matchmaking offers discreet dating service for professionals as well as all levels of personal, one to one relationship coaching for a select, worldwide clientele of unapologetically selective single, successful and attractive men and women in search of a compatible life partner.
