Definition of Love

[JoCannon]

When someone tells you they love you, you're generally totally elated. But drilling down a bit deeper what exactly do the 3 words "I Love You" really mean? What it means to one person is totally different to another. Love is such a complex thing that I believe it is beyond our comprehension to totally understand it. So when someone utters those 3 magical words, without pinning them down and demanding an in-depth dissection of what EXACTLY they mean, how can you ever determine what another person means by it. What would you define as being love, and how would you verbalise such a complex, individual and unique feeling/emotion?

[AliFlump]

A very interesting question Jo, i shall try to explain what it means to me but im sure someone else will probably do it better and ill end up agreeing with them!!

To me it means that i want to be with this person til the day i die, they are my lover, my best friend, my confident, someone who i can share everything with without feeling embarassed or ashamed and someone i would do anything for.

I get excited when i go home to them and look forward to nights in or out with them. When i look at this person all i feel is utter adoration and i cant believe i have some one who feels the same way about me.

Thats how i feel when i look at my boyfriend and say I Love You

[4getmenot]

Aliflump that is a brilliant way of putting it. Spot on to how I feel :-)

[littlemissx]

ahhhhh.... thats what i want!!!!!!! i will meet the right person one day where my feelings will be like that x

[AliFlump]

You will littlemiss and its true what they say you find it in the most unlikely places x

[4getmenot]

But you know when you do :-) And its great :-)

[Toureman]

Answering as a man, it could mean I want to make love to you.

[Morrisonker]

I can't actually express what my boyfriend means to me, 'i love you' doesn't seem enough, I want to tell him everything that I adore about him but I just can't put it into words so those 3 little words will have to do until I figure it out.

To me, 'i love you' means I feel so comfortable with you that I don't have to think about what I say, I don't have to censor myself in any way because you understand. I want to be as close (emothionally rather than just physically) to you as I can, i want to know you inside out. I think I'm a better person for knowing you and loving you and I'll never be able to thank you enough. In the simplest terms I suppose I mean that they complete me but without the negative connotations that has sometimes.

[FelixtheDog]

I believe that Morrisonker sums it up best for me...you need to be comfortable and not have to censor yourself to your partner.

My recently ex-girlfriend started telling me she loved me and adored me and worshiped me (the last made me a bit uncomfortable because I felt that the word 'worship' tips things out of equal balance between two people ...but anyway).

The funny thing was that despite saying all these things and even doing some nice things for me too, it didnt 'feel' right when matched with the other parts of our relationship. For example, some of our conversations about politics, relationships, child rearing and especially men Vs women were quite uncomfortable. I constantly had to censor myself so as not to make her upset with me.

I like to explore a wide range of subjects by talking off the top of my head and just wanted someone to play & explore with me but she constantly saw it as an insult or challenge or something. The arguements often started before I had even made my point (which wasnt even neccessarily my opinion but I couldnt make this clear to her because she was so worked up by then that she didnt want to hear the conclusion)

Eventually, I became so uncomfortable at having to always censor myself that it was easier to just stop the relationship before I got angry from frustration. There are few things I hate more that being told to modify my tone of voice when I am having a rant (not yell or scream, just rant). I let her rant in any tone she liked because I knew it was not personal, just someone blowing off steam and looking for answers, so why couldnt I get away with it too?

Eventually the frustration became too much for me, which is a shame because we had a great sex-life and otherwise were fairly happy.

Sorry, I havent a clue what "I love you means"