Do you have a definition? Have you really and truly asked yourself what is the meaning of love? Love has a lot of meanings and it’s concept is really intriguing and interesting. At least those are the observations from different love experts that abound across the world.

I think, the way society view and understands love is really limited. The society’s terminology for love and its auxiliary concepts is just myopic. We want to believe that when two opposite sexes meet in a restaurant, laugh, kiss and hug, then we believe it to be love.

When a couple is celebrating their 30 year wedding anniversary by sewing the same cloth, having a photo session in the studio, and displaying it on all their social media handles, then it is simply L.O.V.E.

MY PERSPECTIVE

What is the meaning of love: What do you believe?

We have been overwhelmed by love and its myopic meaning that we fail to really take a look at the similarities between love and other masquerade of love like infatuation.

We need to first of all understand what infatuation means as this will give us an holistic view of the concept of love.

It is that hazy understanding of love that allows us to confuse love with infatuation.

To understand love and its meaning, you must be clear on what infatuation means!

I used to think infatuation is the baby of love, that infact it complements love, until I really experienced both and now I have realized that they simply are unrelated.

What is the meaning of love: Infatuation first!

It is this intense feeling of emotional attraction, an instantaneous, powerful, draining and short-lived reaction of rush of emotions which is based on a lot of physical attributes rather than psychological,  deep, genuine intention, understanding and trust.

I tell my readers, it is always difficult to term a first meet as LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT! IT IS USUALLY INFATUTATION at first sight – which is usually enjoyable, demanding and exciting. It sometimes culminates into love.

You see? One of the major issues we have when we are interested in people is to try to figure out whether we truly love them or we are just infatuated with them!

While love really takes so much time to develop, infatuation happens right way!

Hold on, let me break it down. When you are infatuated with someone, this is how you feel:

You are physically attracted to the other sex

You are selfish as you want the other party to yourself

You feel domineering, controlling and jealous

You begin to have expectations that are not feasible and viable

You feel like you just won a million dollar jackpot

You feel like you know everything yet you don’t know a single thing

You lack patience to take things a step at a time

You are obsessive

You crave for perfection so hard

Then this is infatuation! Don’t you just get it twisted!

What is the meaning of love: Understanding what love really is

Love craves a deeper connection

It calms you down

Love is considerate

Love is kind and pretty energizing

Love is generous and forgives

Love sets realistic standards

Love is quiet

Love is selfless

Love does not crave for perfection

Love makes you happy

Love improves your overall temperament and character

There is no such thing as conditional love

Love is trust

All said and done, I have added meanings of love from top sites and blogs:

1 The most spectacular,indescribable, deep euphoric feeling for someone.

Love is an incredibly powerful word. When you’re in love, you always want to be together, and when you’re not, you’re thinking about being together because you need that person and without them your life is incomplete.

This love is unconditional affection with no limits or conditions: completely loving someone. It’s when you trust the other with your life and when you would do anything for each other. When you love someone you want nothing more than for them to be truly happy no matter what it takes because that’s how much you care about them and because their needs come before your own. You hide nothing of yourself and can tell the other anything because you know they accept you just the way you are and vice versa.

It’s when they’re the last thing you think about before you go to sleep and when they’re the first thing you think of when you wake up, the feeling that warms your heart and leaves you overcome by a feeling of serenity. Love involves wanting to show your affection and/or devotion to each other. It’s the smile on your face you get when you’re thinking about them and miss them.

Love can make you do anything and sacrifice for what will be better in the end. Love is intense,and passionate. Everything seems brighter, happier and more wonderful when you’re in love. If you find it, don’t let it go. – Urban Dictionary

2 Love is the most powerful emotion a human being can experience. The strange think is, that almost nobody knows what love is. Why is it so difficult to find love? That is easy to understand, if you know that the word “love” is not the same as one’s feeling of love. – Huffington Post

3 To me, these lines perfectly define love. I believe in loving someone with all your heart, giving them everything you can.

If you love someone then, colour, height, weight, cast, religion… nothing really matters.

If you really love them, you just want them to be happy, that doesn’t mean you won’t feel bad when they are happy without you, you’ll obviously feel jealous and sad. But, you will accept it, or at least will try to, because they are happy or at least you’ll show that you are okay with all this, just because they are happy, and you can’t ruin their happiness by expression your jealousy.

If you love them, you can’t hate them for anything, even for breaking your heart, just can’t!

If you love them, you’ll be ready to do anything just to bring a smile on their face.

If you love them, you can’t be mad at them for a long time.

It’s about accepting the person with all their pros and cons!

And last, you just can’t stop loving them!

This is the kind of love you have in your heart for your Family, Friends, and that one special person too.

Love is not just a small word, it’s a feeling, it’s an unconditional commitment. 

A quote from Shefali Sharma in Quora.com

4 What is love?
“An intangible connection between two people that feels exceptionally good.”
The strength and depth of the connection is determined by two conditions.
The level of self-acceptance each person has for themselves.
How open, honest and exposed each individual is willing to be.
Qualities always present with these connections are:
Trust – believing in their integrity and good intentions towards you.
Respect – concluding they are good and worthy of appreciation.
Affection – demonstrating your good intentions through your actions.
Love is not an emotion. Love is the connection. Your feelings are a reaction to the quality of that connection. – SelfCreation Blog

5 “What is love? Love is freedom,” one woman said. “Love is trust, love is fun.”

“A whole bunch of emotions put together to look at somebody and want to be with them forever,” one man said.

“It’s a feeling and it’s a verb…meaning action. So I want you to show me not tell me,” one Chicagoan said.

“Life, family, friends even people you don’t even know,” another man said.

“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just caring for someone that’s special for you,” another Chicagoan said. – Abc7chicago.com

6 Some people think love is just talking kind, warm and cute words to each other, love is just telling “I love you”, is just being together and having fun. But reality is a bit different and love is hard. So what the true love meant to be? It’s caring of someone you love, being with him when he needs your help, doing everything to protect and look after him. – 16quotes.com

7 The meaning of love is tricky to condense because there are many kinds. “There is the love a parent feels for a child which is different from romantic/sexual love, which is different from the love fans show an athlete or performer, which is different from the tennis score of zero, which is different from love of chocolate or a favorite song, and so on,” she says.

She says the romantic form is most likely to come to mind, “the one that has to do with quickened pulses and candy hearts that say ‘Be Mine’ and that sense is currently worded as ‘the attraction based on sexual desire: the affection and tenderness felt by lovers.’”

The Biochemistry Of Love

The euphoria that accompanies being in love doesn’t just happen. Love triggers a biochemical response in the brain, in which the hypothalamus releases dopamine, which creates feelings of pleasure, reward, desire, and arousal. The hypothalamus is also responsible for producing oxytocin and vasopressin, both associated with bonding and attachment. Vasopressin is a hormone released after sex and plays a role in long-term commitment. The National Institute of Health supported scientists who found that people who have a more positive relationship with their partner have higher levels of oxytocin, sometimes called the cuddling hormone, which is affected by physical contact. If the sheer presence or thought of your partner makes your heart pound or your hands sweat, epinephrine is to blame. Epinephrine is basically an adrenaline rush.

Guys who want to use the biochemistry of love to boost their relationships should try increasing the production of oxytocin: Try giving your partner a hug, sitting a little closer or holding hands. A massage will surely set things in motion. – UKaskmen.com

8 In a general sense, love is that feeling of deep affection towards someone, a great interest in someone and their well being.
So, love is that feeling that warms your heart at the mention of someone’s name, at the sound of their voice. Love is that thing that makes you look at someone at their worst moments, their lowest lows and still want no one but them.

Love in the real sense is not fleeting, not temporary, and not subjected to visible, tangible things.

Society seems to be gravitating towards a redefinition, a wrong perception based on selfishness, distrust, deception, cynicism and disloyalty but these don’t reflect what true love means.

Not only does true love move you to be selfless, it enables you compromise, teaches you to trust, to be loyal and faithful to those you hold dear, it makes you see the best in people, makes you believe the best of them.

Love could change you, make you better, but love itself does not change – not with time, not with circumstances, not in the face of sickness or disease. – Pulse.NG

9 To answer what is the meaning of love, let’s observe the term. It may be described as a strong feeling of affection, great interest and pleasure in someone, which is based on personal connections or sexual desire. If you are eager to find out what is the full meaning of love you will need to observe all the existing kinds of it.

Nowadays there is number of various kinds of this beautiful feeling. The most common ones include:

Family. It’s known as storge. Any mother or father can experience such kind of feeling towards the child. The same is when a kid has affection to grannies, aunts, uncles, etc. It rests on family ties.

To ourselves. It is called philautia. It may have a definition of self-respect. However, it isn’t narcissism, but the joyful feeling of being true to your own values. It means people can care of themselves and have enough strength to care of others.

Of humanity. It’s mostly known as agape. This is when you feel sorrow or grieve, because other people (or even nations) suffer. In such cases, we may spend our money for charity. This feeling makes us percept connected with the others even if we have not met them.

Romantic/erotic. Often referred to as eros. Type is based upon sex or at least sexual attraction. It may finally turn into the other type of love – pragma.

Enduring or pragma. Usually appears within the marriage. It is lasting despite of pain or sickness. Love between old friends may be also called like this.

Playful affection. Known as ludus, this mostly concerns flirting. It’s kind of testing what it is like to be in love. It’s very sweet and pleasant feeling, which many of us experience when we start dating.

Shared experience. For people, who have the same goals as we are, we feel love as well. Mutual efforts make affection even stronger. It is frequently called philia.

Relationships between humans are very complex, that’s why it is so essential to observe them individually from different sides.

You already know, love possesses various kinds. However, we can distinguish certain general features of it. They include:

Pleasure. It concerns not only sexual one. Emotional satisfaction is more important.

Treating Others Well. When you love, you get happy. You desire to share your joy with your beloveds and the whole world. It doesn’t matter, whether you love your child or your husband. Listening and understanding are the key things in building strong relations with your beloved ones.

Caring. The deeper your relations and emotional ties, the more care you need to show. Children, who have been growing in love, become happier. Express your care in different ways. When we do so, we feel more spiritually connected. It concerns all kinds.

Qualities of love

We can say love possesses several inherent qualities, which are as follows:

Complete acceptance. We love people as they are, don’t intend to change them. We never say that something isn’t good in them.

Selfless. No egoism is possible. True love doesn’t ask anything in return. It is ready for sacrifice. We aren’t falling in love to fulfill our needs. We do everything for love’s sake.

Absence of conditions. The meaning of unconditional love refers to fact that we feel affection despite of any negative features of a person. Never mind what s/he says – it won’t influence how we feel. However, if your relationships depend of such insignificant things as words, it is completely conditional thing. We cannot even call it love.

Loneliness elimination. When we love, we stop feeling lonely. We must stop judging the others to love. Separation vanishes.

No limits. We do not need to bound people. Moreover, there are not any restrictions for us – we can love whomever we want. These simple rules concern both romantic and family relations.

To love is more important than to be loved. We can experience real happiness only when we feel something ourselves. If anyone has affection towards you, but you are indifferent, it will have no effect on your life. What all of us really need is to give ourselves. – Naij.com

What does my Facebook friends have to say about the meaning and concept of love:

10 Love is a decision; a decision to stick with someone no matter what, to be there for someone always through thick and thin. After the ‘mushy’ feelings have all gone down, what you’re left with is the decision you’ve made…to love that person forever –  Esther Salaam

11 Love is simply happiness someone else can give to you that u can no capacity to produce yourself – Ayokunle Fayanju

12 Love means different things to diffrent people. To me, Love is a deep feeling of intense affection. Love is when you accept someone not minding his/her flaws and shortcomings. Love is seeing an imperfect person as a perfect person. Everything he or she does pleases you. When u truly love someone, forgiving him/her is easy. You can’t stand keeping malice with the and almost everything u do revolves around them. – Adedoyin Korede

13 Love is a connection between two inner beings which is neither influenced by choice nor will. An attraction which you either yield to or get ripped apart from if repelled. – Abiola Ganiyu

14 Love is an action word. A strong emotional attachment from one person to another even when he doesn’t deserve it – Ibironke Adedotun

14 To me, love is an action word. It means being selfless. Doing more of things that benefit someone just for the sake of love. True love doesn’t have to get the love back. You just show love just because it;s the right thing to do. – Chiamaka Madubike

16 Love is finding that right person you’ll never get tired of…Finding that one person whom I can’t do without, whom I can go miles for . Love is having strong feelings towards someone while its been reciprocated – Fisayo Amarachi Oshiga

17 Love to me is a feeling of warm personal attachments or deep affection – Naomi ‘NaNa’ James

16 Love is an illusion. It is a concept people invented to feel good about themselves. It is nothing more than a desire to dominate and to feel dominated by. It is a desperate question to feel responsible in other to add meaning to our lives. It is an illusion because at the end of the day we are humans and incapable of fulfilling the demands of Love and it’s innumerable qualities. – Adedayo Olaoluwa

The truth is nothing can give us a definition of love on paper. You only need to feel it to know. Love is a strange, abnormal, silly emotion that revolves all around the joy that one derives out of giving selflessly.

You have read it all. Some school of thoughts believe in the concept of love while some do not believe in the concept as well.

What is truly basic about all the illustrations above is that Love instills so many principles and tenets of humanity. It is pertinent to always remember when you say you fall in love, you need to rise in love to know the true meaning of love.

What is your definition of the true meaning of love! Let me have yours!