What Does Love Feel Like And Why Is It Important?

How would you describe “love” or what it feels like to be in love? Love is something that can often be very hard to describe accurately. It's something that we know is there, but it can be difficult to find the right words for. What does it actually feel like to experience love for someone else or to be loved by someone else? While different people can experience love differently, in this article, we’ll explore a few different ways to describe this feeling.

What does love feel like?

The exact experience and feeling of love can vary from one person to the next, but below, we’ll explore some common feelings that may arise when you love someone else, and when someone else loves you.

What does it feel like to love someone else?

When you feel love for someone else, what is that like? You may feel like you have someone that you can enjoy spending time with and enjoy talking about. You tend to think about them, worry about them, get excited for them, or sad for them, and you feel like you have someone important in your life. Just being able to love them can feel like a positive, warm, fulfilling experience. 

Loving someone else can often come naturally to us. We may not consciously think about loving our family or developing a love for a friend. It's often something that tends to sneak up on you, and you find yourself feeling it without really knowing where it came from or when it happened. But it can be a very good surprise, and you probably find yourself happy that you have those strong feelings for someone. 

What does it feel like to be loved?

What about the love that other people feel for you? What does that feel like? When someone else loves you, there's even less control on your part. You have no say in how they feel about you and whether or not they love you, but it can be a very exciting feeling when you know that they do. Knowing that someone cares deeply about you and that they care about whether you're happy or not can make you feel seen, appreciated, valued, special, and important. 

Being loved by different people may also feel differently, such as the love from a family member versus the love from a friend versus the love from a long-term romantic partner. But no matter the source, it tends to make us feel happy to know that someone loves us, and that happiness can carry over to a range of different things in our lives. Whether your happiness leads you to take more chances, explore new options, or anything else, it's likely going to impact your life in some different ways. 

Understanding love

Love can be complicated and confusing, both when trying to love someone else and to be loved in return. We often don’t know why exactly someone might love us or not, or what we could do to make them love us more. Often, the most you can do is to be true to yourself, be kind and loving to yourself and to others, and be open to connections with people as they come. When it comes to love, there is a lot that can be outside of our control, but doing these things can be a strong start.

Love in relationships

Love can often be especially confusing in romantic relationship. Many people think that romantic love feels like those butterflies you get in your stomach when you see the person looking at you, when you hear their name, or when your hands brush against each other for the first time. You may think that romantic love is the feeling of electricity that you get when you experience all of your firsts with each other. 

Often, in a long-term relationship, that initial “electric” love evolves from something fresh and exciting into something deeper and more complex; but this shift in how love feels can be discouraging for some people. Some of us may feel that if we no longer have that initial feeling of excitement that we had in the beginning, we no longer have love; when in fact, many times, the love has just grown and evolved and now looks different.

How love can evolve over time

As a relationship progresses and you become more and more comfortable with that other person, often those initial exciting feelings of "love" may start to fade. Maybe you no longer get weak in the knees when you kiss them, or they aren't the first thing you think about when you wake up, and sometimes you can be so frustrated by them that you don’t want to be with them every waking moment, like when your relationship first started.

When those initial feelings, often described as young love or puppy love, wear off, they may think that the love is gone. Some people may start to think that they are with the wrong person at this point. They may think that they must have fallen out of love with that person somewhere along the way. In reality, they may have just moved to a different stage of love. 

Love can have different stages

When you are in a relationship with someone, you may move through different stages of love. There are different ideas out there about how these stages can be broken down, and different people and couples may experience love differently. But, some of these possible stages can include initial attraction and falling in love, getting to know the person more deeply, and creating and cultivating an attachment. 

Relationships can work through these stages at different times. So, it can be important not to compare your relationship to someone else's. If they are still in that first stage where everything is exciting, and you are in the middle of a trying time in your relationship, you may be led into thinking that your love is not as strong. When, in fact, you may just be in a different stage.

Moving from one stage to the next can be disorienting sometimes, as the sensations, dynamics, and feelings shift. But leaning into these changes can allow you and your partner to develop a deeper connection and enable your love to flourish.

How therapy can help

Navigating love and the many intense emotions it can bring can be very confusing, even when it’s going well. If you would like further help in understanding love in your life and navigating relationships, an online therapist can help. 

Talking about love, dating, and relationships can often feel very personal and vulnerable, and for some people, it may feel easier to discuss these topics in a space where they already feel comfortable. With online therapy through Regain, you can meet with a therapist wherever you have internet, including the comfort of home. 

Plus, research has demonstrated the effectiveness of online interventions for a range of relationship concerns. For instance, one such study found that online couple interventions were effective for improving relationship satisfaction, commitment, confidence, communication skills, and more.

Counselor reviews

Continue reading below for reviews of some Regain counselors:

“Lakesha was absolutely amazing! She helped me find myself and realize my self worth in such a short period! I highly recommend her services she is FRESH and has amazing insight!”

"My experience with Priscilla has been immensely helpful in better understanding myself and providing me with the tools to see my life and relationships with more clarity and compassion."

Takeaway

Love can be thrilling, wonderful, confusing, complicated, and everything in between. If you’re trying to better understand love and how it can feel, you can start by reading some of the descriptions detailed above. For further help with love, dating, and relationship concerns, an online therapist can help.