Ah, love! One of the most demanding things in the world, yet desired by almost everyone. Love may be a singular word with a powerful meaning, but it consists of plural actions and many experiences.
In this lifetime, friends may talk about love like it is one simple thing but you are guaranteed to encounter these 8 types of love at least once in your life. Which love are you experiencing right now? See how much it’s affecting your love life.
1. Empty Love
This type of love is one of the harder ones for people to escape, yet so easy to fall into. You feel like something is always missing and need this large void filled up by another person’s actions, emotions, and affection. However, a friend won’t cut it — you need a new lover.
Sadly, these empty relationships are as empty as the person creating it and usually involves a chaotic teeter-totter effect. You feel like you are on cloud 9 one moment, then spiralling the next. You don’t know how long you can stay attached to this person.
In the end, you do not really love them, you just love what they can do for you. Quit while you’re ahead.
2. Pulse Love
Similar to Empty Love, Pulse Love lives off adrenaline. Your actions are more sporadic and things feel more delightful due to the carefree, fast-paced nature of this love. We become addicted to trying new things, meeting new people, and exploring for a while.
Pulse Love can be effective as long as you meet someone going through the same phase. The rush can come to an end when you hit the bump in the road known as commitment.
Finding someone you can explore with can eventually lead to a very stable and long relationship, but for now, you need to take the time to find a few encounters and reevaluate old desires. Our perspective on love changes as time goes by, after all.
3. Lonely Love
Definitely one of the most painful love experiences, Lonely Love is unrequited love, meaning your feelings are one-sided. You care for them, love for them and want to be everything for them, but you simply can’t. It is beyond frustrating.
However, don’t let this type of love consume you. Isolating your body, mind and even your time for that person can really be detrimental to your other relationships. Unless you can clearly see what you are getting into, it is better to realize you can’t love this person.
Maintain the relationship but love yourself first before showering them with care again. This love can be beneficial because you may realize how someone else felt when they loved you. Your love is less selfish and more people-oriented afterwards. Better to have loved than lost, huh?
4. Manipulative Love
Just as dangerous as Lonely Love, Manipulative Love creates suffering on the bottom end. Manipulation involves condescending behavior, he said she said, and enforced changes. Because of this love, people forget how to be themselves and look more like a love toy than a real person.
How do you know when you’re the manipulator? If you often enforce your opinions or habits on your partner without consideration as to why they behave that way, there is your first small clue. I hated when my man told me to never do A, B and C, but there he was doing it himself. If you feel like a hypocrite, step back and learn that there are certain things your partner can’t change and can’t do for you.
5. Unbalanced Love
Unbalanced Love can be tricky to escape unscathed because this usually ends in a devastating way if not resolved. Unbalanced Love shockingly involves a lot of role-playing too (no, not the fun, kinky type). You often feel more like a parental figure instead of a lover due to the give and take system.
When you feel like you’re giving more, you should immediately express this. Hiding your feelings leads to petty actions and a constant search for their behavior in order to validate the imbalanced relationship. In the end, you will simply explode the time bomb of every moment you felt used and abused.
6. Platonic Love
We all have that one person we love more than our own family. Of course, the love doesn’t involve anything s**ual (unless you are FWBs), but the love is stronger than any other. Platonic Love is one of the most rewarding because you genuinely love a person for their entire being.
This relationship isn’t just for your high school bestie — it can be for your co-worker, sister-in-law or even a cousin. You’re close and can accept all of their good and bad, 100 percent of the time, and vice versa. Platonic Love is personal, involved and transparent. You don’t have to force yourself to be your best, you unconsciously do just that for said person.
7. Passionate Love
Passionate Love isn’t just for romance novels anymore. Every day is the honeymoon phase and Passionate lovers are literally the spice of life when it comes to dating. In a relationship, things continue to be engaging and interesting but not just in the bedroom.
The ability to see romance as a turn-on is one of the most eye-opening experiences. From holding your hand to that playful nudge while at the gym, cooking, watching movies or even enjoying nature together, it somehow blossoms into a love of life because that person can make everything effortlessly romantic.
It is love that movie directors die trying to make. If you find more thrill doing things outside the bedroom, you are authentically engaged in a Passionate Love life.
8. True Love
True love is something everyone is after but it doesn’t come that easy. The reason why it is called “True Love” is that it is truly made just for you in the end. It is a type of love personalized for your interests, benefits, and is usually something cultivated by you and your partner.
It can be beneficial because this love is not one-sided, impulsive or manipulative; you and your partner went the extra mile to make it everlasting. It is also built on the foundation of understanding one another, not perfectionism.
You work through the ups and downs and know when to give 70 percent instead of expecting an even 50/50. The unbalanced outcome is what makes it so balanced, and letting go of larger expectations leads to bigger surprises from your lover.
