Everyone wants to find love and countless radio songs hail the wonderful, giddy feeling. So, what exactly is love? It’s not simple to define. Love can be broken down into five stages: attraction, romance, passion, intimacy, and commitment.

Understanding each stage will give you a better understanding of just what it means to be in love.
Here are the 5 stages:

Attraction

To be attracted to someone means that you are drawn to them in a way beyond simple friendship. Attraction is a force that draws two objects together, and when used in a romantic sense attraction can be physical or emotional. Physical attraction is powerful and is sometimes called lust.

It manifests itself in many ways, including an increased temperature, a tightened throat, butterflies in the stomach, buckled knees, sweaty palms, etc.
An emotional attraction develops when you share experiences with a man. Often this involves difficult times. A woman that shows a man her ability to remain calm and poised during a crisis understands what a man really desires in a woman.

A couple may experience both physical and emotional attraction, or they may experience just one of these. An emotional attraction is highly desirable because it will last much longer than physical attraction.

Romance

Romance involves trying to win a partner over by lavishing them with love, attention, gifts, and thoughtful dates. It can be either selfish or selfless. Selfish romance involves lavishing attention on someone for personal gain, whether it be to impress someone else or just to get sex.

Selfish romance does not last and will end up hurting everyone involved. Selfless romance, on the other hand, is when you do things for your partner merely for their pleasure and enjoyment.

In return, you find pleasure and happiness through doing kind things for them. Selfless romance is enduring.

Romance is an act and can easily be rekindled in couples who have been together for a long period of time. It doesn’t have to involve fancy black-tie dinners and champagne but can be something as simple as a backrub or a sweet, thoughtful card letting your partner know how much they mean to you.

With some careful planning and consideration, romance can keep burning throughout the course of a lifetime.

Passion

Passion is an intense feeling of desire for another person. When an emotional relationship turns into a physical relationship, the couple will experience this very important stage of passion.

Passion is so important because it’s a plateau point in the relationship. From this point in, the relationship will either burn out or the couple will decide that it’s time to move the relationship to the next level.

Intimacy

Intimacy is a close, personal, and loving relationship with another person. It’s a never-ending process of getting to know everything about your partner and sharing your thoughts, wants, dreams, feelings, etc. Intimacy is vital to a long-term relationship and without it a long-term relationship cannot survive.

Commitment

Commitment is a huge step in an early-stage relationship and is necessary to develop into a long-term relationship. When a couple is committed, they promise to remain true to their mate and stick by their side through good times and bad.

Commitment when the relationship is smooth-sailing is simple and very difficult when times are volatile. Every relationship ebs and flows with it’s natural peaks and low points, though, and commitment and perseverance will get you through it.

Love is a constantly evolving creature that needs love and nurturing to grow. Learn to respect your differences, truly listen to each other, compromise when an agreement cannot be reached, and always keep in mind what drew you to your partner to begin with. Love is endlessly rewarding if you give it your 100% effort.