3 Things That Only Feel Like Love

Love is a tricky emotion. There are some things that feel like love but they are much too superficial to be the real thing. Real love takes time and doesn't happen over night. Here are three things that people often confuse for love.

Lust

Lust is the feeling that is often mistaken for love at first sight. Lust is an intense and sudden attraction to somebody you hardly know. It is mistaken for love because the attraction is so strong.
Lust can feel like love because the feelings of attraction are strong and all-consuming. The emotions stirred up by lust can feel very real but they are based on a fantasy. To love somebody you must know them well but many people fall in lust while they are still strangers. What people in lust fall for is a fantasy of what might be and reality can get lost in the excitement.
Overwhelmed by physical attraction people in lust can't keep their hands off of each other. They think about each other constantly and talk about one another all the time. Lust is a happy feeling brought on by passionate attraction. If you are inexperienced in matters of the heart it is very easy to mistake all that passion for love.
Lust differs from love like night differs from day. Lust happens in the early phase of a relationship when people don’t yet know each other. Lust is based on a fantasy, and the fantasy and reality don’t always mesh up. This is where lust runs out of steam.

Deciding What to Do if You Find Yourself in Love with Someone Other than Your Spouse

Sam, a man of twenty-eight who had been married six years and had two children, found himself in just this situation. His secretary was an unusually attractive girl of twenty-four. Neither of them had thought of love at first, although they had "clicked" remarkably well from the start. As time went on, they found that they had similar interests, standards, tastes, and ideals. Suddenly they realized that without any intent from either party, they were in love with each other. Before they did anything drastic, they went to a consultant and laid their problem before him.

The first task of the consultant was to point out that the situation was not unusual. Sam had also loved several other people. His list included his wife, his mother, a sister, a minister to whom he was greatly attached, and two other men with whom he fished for a week each year. Love certainly does not necessarily require a sexual expression. Sam's love for his secretary was not essentially different from his love for any of the others, except that it had the additional element of sexual attraction. This could complicate it seriously, but did not need to. It was Sam's wife who had borne his children, and with whom he was building his family, not his secretary. This fact gave to Sam and his wife a unique relationship, quite different from that with any of the others whom Sam loved. Therefore it would be better if Sam would restrict his physical intimacies to his wife.

Maintaining A Strong Relationship

Every relationship is unique, complex and multi-dimensional, and every person has his own way of understanding and feeling if a relationship is or is not right for him. Most of us want to fall in love, be in love and stay in love forever. We want just to put ourselves to the hands of the loved one in the hope that the relationship will provide all our happiness. We even think that our partner is supposed to know exactly what, when and how to provide this happiness. But good relationships do not happen out of nowhere, automatically, and are based on caring and giving rather then by a need. We all must be prepared to give to the other and not just concentrate on what it is that we need and what is important only for us.
The beauty and essence of a good relationship is when you feel completely comfortable with the other part. A relationship can be a great way to have fun and create a special bond, as well as learn a lot about yourself and the one you care for. Good relationship makes you laugh, it makes you feel safe and supported, and what is most important - very happy.