Love & need of Belongingness

All of us are somewhere so motivated to have good relationships in life, to have one or few people around us with whom we can share our deepest feelings. And the persons could be anyone. For some, the person could be their mother or father or siblings or good friends or the lover. We all have a need of belonging in our life. People say, in this world everyone comes alone and goes alone, but the fact is no one can live alone the entire life. We all want someone to cherish our happiest moments with us, to make us smile when we are sad, to stand by us at the time of need, to motivate us to stand up and walk again when we fall.

The “belongingness hypothesis” states that people have a basic psychological need to feel closely connected to others, and that caring, affectionate bonds from close relationships are a major part of human behavior. The need for love and belonging includes the range of intimacy among people and encompasses caring, compassion, empathy, a sense of having a place in the world, being part of a community, feeling accepted and approved of versus rejection and disapproval, attention, and affection.

On the other hand, anything that creates a sense of disconnection or threat of disconnection from the loved ones hazards the satisfaction of the need for love and belonging. However we human beings ourselves creates these sense of disconnections in our relationships by letting the insecurities, inhibition, jealousy, and many such emotions come between the healthy relationships. No matter how you slice it, relationships carry immense emotional weight. People feel a great deal of positive emotion (e.g., joy, bliss, love), especially during the early stages of relationships. People also feel lots of negative emotions and distress (e.g., anxiety, anger, jealousy) when things aren't going well. But one must understand the limit of emotions. When these insecurities, anger and such negative emotions go beyond the limit, is the time when people encounter gaps in relationships and an intimidation to that strong bonding.

The truth is Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect. In this Valentine’s Day, we wish you all to be filled with positive emotions, sense of belonging and love all around.