Imitations

People need love. Or, they die. It’s basic to human nature.

This fact leaves no doubt of its persistent influence throughout our whole lifespan. 

It actually matters more than anything else at every stage of our life until the end.

When one has been deprived of healthy love, especially since childhood, a “vital force” to his adulthood gets compromised.

Left unprocessed and unmet, the wounded soul resorts to false versions of love for one’s self and others.

Pope Francis once said recently, “If you are looking for meaning in life but not finding one, you throw yourself away with ‘imitations of love,’ such as wealth, career, pleasure, or an addiction. Let Jesus look at you and you will discover that you have always been loved.”

The Pope refers to “imitations of love.” He means false versions or diversions of love that never satisfy the deepest longings of your heart.

Psychopathology is often a product of compromised love and addiction to “imitations of love.” 

Time and resources are squandered because of a lack of enough supply of healthy love and awareness to seize the freedom to be one’s true self. 

“Para akong sasabog!” (“As if I’m about to explode!”) texted a Filipino young woman in her 20s after hearing her BF calling her “sensitive bitch.”

Whether with real or imagined withdrawal of love from another, she loses a hold of her self. 

That’s “too much” for her. And because of that, she often finds her self into heavy smoking, drinking, and sexual promiscuity.

Some people never really learned to love and to be loved. 

By resorting to false “imitations of love,” they are actually hiding their own need to love and be loved as they are.

#imitationsoflove

#truelovefalselove

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#psychotherapistmanila

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