Global Love Crisis?

Small_Planet_Love

We are in a ‘global love crisis’ because there are forces in our world, created by ourselves, that are steadily diminishing our ability to form the kind of ‘relationships’ required to nurture the love we all have inside.

The experience of love is organic and emerges into our direct experience beyond our control. Love is a living emotion that requires care. What we can control is the ‘relationship’ we form with others and ourselves to feed and care for the love that emerges from within us. The relationships we form to contain the love we feel either feeds or starves the love we experience.

Once we’ve altered our ability to create the kind of relationships required to sustain love, the amount and quality of the love we can experience diminishes. Deep human intimacy appears to be on the decrease as a consequence of the technological transformations of our interpersonal lives. We take less time to make real contact with each other. There is so much to do and attain. We’re very busy. We rarely slow down long enough to feel the love we have inside.

It appears that the ‘cure’ for this global love crisis will not occur at the level of governments or organizations. They have been too corrupted by power and money. Instead, the responsibility falls once again to the individual. Once you, the individual, become aware of how your surroundings are influencing your love life (here defined as love in your life), you will have only to decide what to do to make sure your ability to love and be loved survives.

Being aware of the problem is the first step. The second is to revitalize the experience of marriage. Marriage has taken on a bunch of different meanings to different people nowadays. It’s time to bring marriage back to its true essence: a solemn agreement between two people to evolve their experience of love together. Every time two people fall in love and marry, with the intention to evolve their mutual love through an exclusive commitment to each other, love is preserved in this world. The global love crisis becomes less of a crisis by degree. And we shouldn’t stop there.

The ‘relationship’ you form with yourself is another equally vital step in this cure. It’s from the relationship we make with ourselves that we are able to recognize and cherish the true value of an unique human life. Individuals taught to love who they are, will love others as they are more deeply. They will be capable of seeing beyond the differences between us, and able to keep our ability to love and be loved alive.

Imagine you are born with your own unique candle that is lit at the precise moment of your birth. Once lit, your candle is in constant danger of blowing out, more so, the younger you are. Each one of us finds creative ways of keeping our candles lit. The true objective is to keep your candle lit and generating light for a lifetime.

Unfortunately, some experiences in life are of sufficient toxic intensity that the candle goes out and darkness envelopes the inner life of the individual. With ample effort and motivation, candles can be relit after they have accidentally gone out. Keeping your candle burning is another way, you the individual person, can diminish the loss of love in this world of ours. Keep up the good work!

Comments? Welcome. Dr. Tom Jordan

Dr. Jordan

Dr. Thomas Jordan is a clinical psychologist, certified interpersonal psychoanalyst, author, professor, and love life researcher.

1 Comment

  1. Niya C. Sisk on July 16, 2013 at 12:00 pm

    I find your articles in general very helpful, wise and inspiring.
    But this one is just plain amazing. Thank you. I’m sharing this! You bring up the aspects of love in life that aren’t easy to see. Somehow you put it into terms that are truthful and actionable – and compassionate. Thank you Dr. Thomas Jordan!

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