Love, too familiar an idea maybe, yet has kept baffling men and women alike since time immemorial. It is in fact amongst the few words that have syllabication is every language and dialect existent in the planet. And perhaps, so common that professing love, real love in that matter, and compelling that one person you love to believe you, has become intricate if not difficult.

How do you say I love you? Culture and advancement might have progressed methods of expressing love in numerous ways, but there remain the most basic of ways to show it. These things are beyond the words “I love you”, because these are what you should do after all the words have been said. These simple ways, I think, are the most raw and the purest, that once you become familiar with them, you become a love fundamentalist.

    Appreciate

      The power of appreciation should never be undermined. It can build or destroy people! Being appreciated makes people feel important and secured of themselves. And don’t we want the person we love to feel the same way?

      The best feature of showing appreciation is that it can be inexpensive. Sure, one can be so appreciative and give away diamonds or romantic dinners just like that; however, appreciation in itself is free-of-charge. You can always look at your partner, gaze at them and smile. Compliment how impeccable her hair falls to her shoulders; or how cute he looks in the morning. There are so many things to appreciate about people, especially those whom we are in love with, and they are just there waiting until we notice them. So why not take a closer glance of your partner. What are the good things that you see?

    Understand

      Admittedly, even the ones we love dearly can make us irate. It’s not bad, nor indicting to feel this way. What’s bad is when we allow the anger to make us forget that we love them. This is where understanding comes-in. However, be it clear that to understand is different from tolerating. Understanding is deeper and more responsible.

      At certain points in any relationships, hurt and disappointments are usual visitors; either it’s you who inflict it, or you’re the one inflicted with it. To understand is to admit to yourself that your partner is not immaculate, and so are you; that people can do mistakes they would have not wanted to do or would never again do. And that by making them feel that we do understand them, we give them the sense of approval that they can change their ways; that there is an incentive if they change their ways – to make that person who understood them happy.

    Complement

      By becoming the completing part of your partner, you make them feel whole. This, I think, summarizes everything there is to learn about lasting relationships. Make your partner a part of your life, let them in to your world; show them the things that makes you happy, and be interested to know the things that make them happy as well. Be always curious and interested.

      To complement, is perhaps the heftiest yet the most straightforward of all ways to express love. It does not require extensive research and questioning, because it is innate to everyone in search for their missing piece, that once the situation calls for it, anyone would know exactly how to do it – how to complement.

And though there is not assurance that love would remain the same throughout the years, what’s assured is that there are means to make love linger long. What’s left for us to do is to explore these means, and simply be happy that love has come our way.

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