Experts from project , Education of affectivity and human sexuality
What are the characteristics of love?
Love is a phenomenon that encompasses the whole person. This means, first of all, that neither attraction nor feelings are left out of it, but love is much more than that. Whoever remains only in physical attraction or feelings does not really get to love.
To love is to consider the other person completely, to appreciate him/her, to take care of him/her, to be attentive to him/her, to rejoice in his/her joys and to share his/her sorrows in order to diminish them. The one who loves likes to help the other and to receive financial aid from that person. To love is to know the other person in a realistic way without idealizing him/her, accepting him/her as he/she is and trying to help him/her to improve. But also to love is to make oneself known, to open one's own interiority and to share it with all the sincerity of which we are capable.
Solidarity is part of love, as well as sincerity, justice, sacrifice but also reward, respect, mutual interest, patience. Forgiving and knowing how to ask for forgiveness is also part of knowing how to love. As Yepes Stock says: "Love makes life worth living".
If you think about it, all the characteristics we have mentioned are reasons that help to reach a stable commitment. Commitment is a decision matured over time that enhances love.
The core topic to reach love is that one must also be guided by the will which is one of the highest Schools of the human being. In complete love, the knowledge and the will always go together.
The knowledge will provide you with the necessary elements of judgment to distinguish the stages of love and make the right decisions at every moment, avoiding being manipulated or acting under false images of love.
The will will help you to direct your feelings and affections, your thoughts and your actions. You will be able to stick to the decision you have made, without acting under pressures that will harm you. On the path of love, knowing how to wait is one of the main virtues that guarantees the best results in the present and in the future.
The knowledge and the will teach you to respect people, their privacy and their dignity. You will easily understand that there are behaviors that you should avoid, for your own benefit and for the benefit of others. Moreover, by exercising the will over time you will also consolidate the foundations that will allow you to reach the physical and psychological maturity necessary to truly love.