When thinking about a romantic relationship, what comes to your mind? Love - then I ask what love is, is love something you can measure by how much money you spend on each other - is it how much time and effort you put into the relationship to make it work because you truly want to be with one another or maybe something else?. Whatever the case one thing is for certain we all need someone to love and be loved.
Romantic relationships are probably the most if not one of the most powerful bonds possible between a man and a woman. Yet it can also have devastating emotional and even financial consequences when things do not work out. Oftentimes, one person feels somehow cheated, upset that the other person is not putting in as much effort or does not show as much appreciation. Other times interest simply wanes, whether physical, intellectual, or otherwise, and it becomes easier and easier for resentment to take root and build up.
Romantic relationships can be easy to get into but are very often extraordinarily hard to work out successfully or even just get out of. Feelings of abandonment are common, with a sense of shame and the resultant low self-esteem. In many cases, anger maybe even jealousy will also ensue; further disrupting lives and distorting perceptions for you and your loved one.
It takes a good deal of maturity to engage in a successful romantic relationship, and in some ways probably takes even more too gracefully end one. Usually, the two parties are unevenly matched in many areas, making both maintaining such a relationship as well as ending one very difficult emotionally, physically and even financially.
A major part of the problem - indeed, its' very core - is that people confuse love with desire. It is possible to desire without love, but impossible to love without desire. Moreover, as psychologist Erich Fromm has noted, people think of love as a matter of having instead of being. That is, people want to have love but do not actually practice loving, as an action of their everyday lives. Its' almost as if people view love as an object and not as an act of being; Most likely due to the fact our society is very objective and always trying to materialize everything - especially emotion.
People imagine that nothing is easier than to love, not realizing that to love is actually the hardest task any human being could ever accomplish in his or her lifetime. They confuse the experience of falling in love with that of "standing" in love. Falling in love means being attracted to someone, staying in love, says Fromm, is about caring for that person regardless of one's own needs and desires. Essentially in a way sacrificing oneself - not physically, and devoting yourself to the well being of another.
Author Resource:
This article was written by Paul Wise. To find out more information about romantic relationships, Paul recommends visiting www.articleelephant.com, they offer a wide selection of articles for your many needs.
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