What's the Difference Between Being "Infatuated" & "Being in Love?"

Today I am going to write on the difference between ‘infatuation and ‘being in love.”

Infatuation occurs when one meets a person and feels the compulsion to always be with them. This is merely a chemical reaction from the bonding hormone, oxytocin. The oxytocin is there for the procreation to occur to keep the species continuing and has very little to do with ‘being in love’ for chemical attraction on its own does not make for a loving relationship.

John Gray, PH.D. puts it like this:

“That love motivates you to cooperate, respect, appreciate, cherish, and admire that person.”

and

“To love someone is to acknowledge the goodness of who they are. Through loving a person we awaken their awareness of their own innate goodness. It is as though they cannot know how worthy they are until they look into the mirror of our love and see themselves.”

One really needs to build a loving relationship on all levels of the emotional, mental, spiritual, as well as physical levels for a relationship to grow.

One also needs to realize that one person is unable to fulfill all of our needs, so it is important to have other people with whom we are friendly to fulfill that for ourselves. Sure we need to have common interests and values, however few of us are going to be experts or have a capacity to understand every dimension of our partner.

We also need to realize that we humans do need time for ourselves — quiet time alone to pursue our individual interests or just to ‘be’ without any expectations being put upon us.

However, the most important aspect of being in love is realizing that there will indeed be challenges that occur through life — everyone will have a few to contend with as this is the nature of living. Being in love means that the support and care is given to one another as these challenges occur without question.

For those of you who want to discover more about what ‘being in love’ means and how to foster that in your relationship, I am going to be doing a 3-day retreat in the Dominican Republic at the Villa Serena Hotel Oct 3–5, 2021 — ‘Bringing True Love to Your Primary Relationship’

For more info: https://dawningvisions.com/upcoming-events/