Showing love to those we are closest to and even to those around us is a great way to develop relationships as well as to grow as individuals. Personally, I love showing my love to others in my own special way. Sometimes, that is literally just saying the phrase “I love you,” and other times, that is doing a small gesture that I know will hold significance to that specific person. I believe that showing love to the people in your life develops trust and self-reflection.
I view expressing love as a two-step process. First, you establish trust with someone, letting them into your circle. This is the lengthier part of the process. It can take a while to open up and let someone in. Learning the ins and outs and how sharing your most vulnerable traits leads to learning how compatible a relationship with another can be. When I open this door, the second part of the process comes into play. I begin to develop an emotional connection to the person and share more of myself with them. Our bond begins to develop, my guard comes down, and I begin to grow, along with our trust and connection. We create new memories, spend time together, and go through different seasons of life together, periods of change or personal development.
The reality is that no matter how long someone is in your life, they will bring something valuable to the table: love. They could teach you something about yourself or about the trials and tribulations of life. I view every interaction as lucky and find the worth in it. I consider it a blessing to have begun to get to know others and share a season or two of life with them. I think the growth we go through as a relationship with others is the greatest expression of love we can ask for. When we strengthen our bonds with others, we learn how to interact with them and provide ourselves with stronger intuition into what we desire from our relationships.
Love is a funny thing. Our perceptions of love vary so much. Love is beautiful, unique, and individualized. Instead of spending money on others to show our love, though, I think the more priceless thing to do would be to sit down with your loved ones and use your words or actions to express how much they mean to you. Do this in a way that holds significance to the both of you. That will help your bond continue to grow. I think if more people were open to this idea of opening up and trusting others while also allowing themselves to grow, their expressions of love can change for the better and become more meaningful.