Mastering the Secret Language of Love
Copyright 2006 Ada Porat
What is it that attracts us to certain individuals, while we
find others unappealing?
In some circles, this force of attraction has been attributed to
fate, destiny or even karma. Beyond the romantic dream of soul
mates, there is a very real scientific cause at work here: the
secret language of love that is hard-wired into your physicality.
Each one of us consists of 6,000 miles of neurons wired through
the body. These neurons affect every area of our lives,
including our complex behaviors in love - a process that is
totally subjective and illogical.
If you've ever fallen in love, you know that it sometimes has
nothing to do with whether the person is "right" for you or not.
Why does this happen? This happens simply because what we
describe in our society as "falling in love" is the formation of
a subjective neural pathway inside our brains.
What does it mean? It simply means that in response to previous
emotional experiences, your brain has become wired to interpret
love in a very particular way. And this way is shaped by what
you have interpreted love to be in the past.
You have a unique love formula or equation that contains all the
behaviors, emotions and expressions that you interpret as love.
Together, they comprise your secret language of love which
operates largely on a subconscious level.
One aspect of your love equation contains a specific set of
criteria that must be present in order for you to fall in love.
This aspect explains why some of us are inexplicably drawn to
individuals with dark hair, blue eyes or some other physical
characteristic. When we find ourselves attracted to another, the
brain chemistry starts generating the appropriate endorphins and
we "fall in love."
Another aspect of your love equation contains the set of
criteria that must be present in order for you to feel loved.
This aspect operates for the duration of the relationship: if
the relationship is to have any chance of surviving the initial
phase, it is imperative for us to learn more about what we need
from one another in order to feel loved. This is what I refer to
as your secret love equation, because it happens at a
subconscious level.
Your secret love equation is based on the concept of reward. If
you were rewarded for certain behavior such as compliance when
you were growing up, you learned to interpret that reward as
love. You are likely to repeat some version of that behavior
with a partner in the hope of getting a similar reward. Hence,
the compliant child becomes a submissive partner and expects to
be rewarded for that behavior, which is then interpreted as love.
And that's where the rub lies! Despite research conducted with
thousands of people and their love equations, there are no two
partners who have identical love equations for feeling loved.
Love equations are completely subjective. Therefore, the way you
express love could be very different from the way your partner
interprets love.
When one partner expresses to the other, "I don't feel loved by
you," the other may respond by listing many things they do to
demonstrate their love. However, for the partner who is feeling
unloved, none of the actions listed may equate to love in their
mind, because these actions are not wired into their secret
language of love. It is entirely possible for one partner in a
relationship to feel they are being extremely loving, while the
other partner is actually feeling completely unloved!
In general terms, men find it easier to express their love by
doing things for their partner. Women, on the other hand, may
disregard these actions as expressions of love because they are
looking for some romantic verbal expression of love apart from
the daily routine.
And the plot thickens: While the basis for your unique love
equation is based on emotional experiences from your past, your
beliefs about what happens after you fall in love can change
dramatically as a result of a major emotional upheaval.
In the traditional (mythical) love equation cherished by our
culture, you meet the person of your dreams, fall in love, get
married and live happily ever after. Most of us start out with a
love equation similar to this... until the first experience of
infidelity or a breakup!
After suffering a broken heart and broken dreams, your love
equation may change to meeting the partner of your dreams,
falling in love, getting married, suffering infidelity and
living in the pain of that experience forever. For such a
person, even the thought of meeting a partner and falling in
love, now equates to pain.
Every time that person mentally replays the negative emotional
experience, they are actually strengthening the new,
disempowering love equation by firing off a synaptic response in
the brain that makes this new equation real for them.
How do we master the secret language of love in ourselves and in
our partners? We do so through honesty and commitment. We need
to honestly look at our areas of wounding and pain, and express
it to our partners along with what we need to feel loved. We
also need to consciously commit never to hurt our partners
intentionally in their areas of wounding and to express our love
for them in the language they need to receive it - even when
their love equation is different from ours!
Developing a loving relationship requires mutual commitment to
honor and respect our own truth and our partner's truth without
compromise. When we are not honest with our love and our pain,
our wounds and our fears, we compromise our truth. Over time,
the compromises made by not facing up to truth, breed resentment
that will eventually destroy all intimacy and push our partners
away.
When two souls are drawn together, it happens because there is a
resonance in their resonant energy fields. These fields draw
people together because of their common energies.
These matching fields offer powerful opportunities for healing
and growth, provided a mutual commitment is made to learn each
other's secret language of love, heal each other's wounds and to
evolve as fully conscious, loving beings.