All About Love

When it comes to love, I think the most important thing in a relationship is mutuality, and with that, respect. For any relationship to work a 50-50 effort is always needed. For example, when it comes to Romantic/Sweet Love, there are these set gender roles that state women are the ones who are emotional and that men follow the women's lead. It's also typical to think that men are obligated to give gifts and open doors and provide the women with anything they want. In reality, these gender roles are never true. Both men and women must make the equal effort to make their significant other happy, and should not expect the other to put in most of the work, or even give up effort in that relationship. Without this mutuality, there is a lack of respect on one's part, and without an equal amount of respect for each other, there is no point in that relationship even existing. 

Speaking of respect, I think the one thing many people forget to do is respect and love themselves before they love another person. This is such a big problem because everyone is self conscious and it's so hard for them to accept themselves for who they are. In the chapter that talks about self love, it says that one needs to be confident in themselves and love who they are because it is impossible to love another when you can't even love yourself. You need to make yourself happy, and then everything else will fall into place, and you can begin to love others with the same respect. This is such a big component to love that I think is so overlooked because I think people feel as though they can find a significant other to fill the void of the love they don't have for themselves, and that can be a foundation for a failing relationship. So I really think people need to understand that you can never use the love of someone else to replace the love you need for yourself.