For a while, I assumed that I knew my preferred way of expressing love and affection. But up until recently, I have come to realize that my love language is much more complicated than an idea or concept. I gave myself an expectation that love had to feel or look a certain way. The truth is that love looks different for everyone. I have had a difficult time grasping the idea that my love language is quite different than how I have typically identified with. I have been so focused on the idea of being loved, that I have forgotten what love is. Love is not a concept, nor a feeling. Love is a way of being and I feel that my mind has been so conditioned to feel otherwise, that I have lost sight of love itself. I often confuse love with affection, and this results in a false sense of reality.
In addition, I have found clarity in aspects of my emotions that I did not see before. I have always wanted to feel loved, but I had the preconceived notion that it was supposed to feel a certain way. I have always identified my love language with thoughtful acts and words of affirmation. But recently, I have struggled with feeling a lack of physical affection. I tend to convince myself that it is simply because I have not found right the person. However, it is a personal realization that physical affirmation is what my inner child has always needed. When I was a child, I had an extreme lack of physical affection, and I had no idea how much I needed it until recently. I have looked towards superficial ways of feeling whole just to ignore the fact that I need affection. My own denial to this love language is that I connect physical affection, with shame.
Furthermore, connecting physical affection as a part of my love language has made it incredibly difficult to separate from the shame I associate with physical acts of love. This shame varies from a simple hug to something much more intimate. My inner child has separated love and physical affection because of the way that it had been displayed to me as a child. In this idea, it created a toxic viewpoint of physical affection being wrong or shameful…
Although I have created this fixation with physical affection being connected to shame, I am actively working to change that mindset. Nonetheless, I still have to respect my inner child for feeling the way she does and its essential that I validate why she makes a connection between those two concepts. While I respect and validate my inner child, I have to remind myself that I am the only one with the awareness to change that kind of toxic thinking. I consistently have to remind myself that I was not safe as a child, but I am able to protect myself now. It would be impossible for my mind and heart to create a soul connection with another person if I did not open myself up to the idea that love is not an act of shame. The acts that were referred to as love when I was a child are actions and concepts that I was taught from family members or close friends. My inner child is still working to recognize what love is supposed to feel like and that if it feels wrong, it is wrong.