“Know all of the theories, grasp all of the methods, however as you contact a human soul ,be simply one other human soul.” ~Carl Jung
For years, I poured myself into studying about love, relationships, and private development. I learn each e-book I may get my palms on, signed up for numerous courses, and surrounded myself with affirmations, instruments, and methods that promised me the keys to like. I used to be on a mission, satisfied that with sufficient information, I may lastly unlock the door to a profitable, fulfilling relationship.
However regardless of how a lot I realized, how a lot I remodeled my mindset, or what number of constructive affirmations I repeated, the items by no means fairly match collectively the best way I anticipated them to. The recommendation appeared sound, and the modifications I made felt empowering—but when it got here to issues of the center, the solutions have been usually elusive.
Regardless of my greatest efforts to engineer an ideal love life, I had been attempting to manage one thing that finally falls past any framework, concept, or method.
In that second of realization, I lastly understood the true that means behind Carl Jung’s phrases. Though he initially used this quote in his work as a psychologist, highlighting the significance of connecting with others on a profound, human degree, I now see how deeply related it’s in romantic relationships. I wanted to satisfy myself on a human degree earlier than I may meet others.
Love, very like life, can’t be mastered by way of mind alone. It’s not about perfecting a algorithm or following a particular system—it’s about surrendering to the thriller of being human collectively, with all our imperfections and strivings.
The Pursuit of Perfection
After I first set out on my journey to “turn out to be the one” or to “entice the one,” I used to be trying to find the magic system that will assure my ultimate relationship. I believed that if I mastered the proper mindset, practiced constructive pondering, and utilized the newest courting methods, love can be inevitable.
However someplace alongside the best way, I started to lose sight of the truth that love shouldn’t be a vacation spot—it’s an expertise. And that have doesn’t unfold as a result of I’m probably the most polished model of myself; it emerges once I permit myself to be authentically human.
Inadvertently, I turned misdirected, shifting from residing within the second to striving to resolve a puzzle. The irony was that in my pursuit of perfection, I grew extra disconnected from my true self. I wasn’t in search of a real reference to one other soul; I unconsciously centered on proving to myself that I may clear up this.
The Limitations of the “How-To” Guides
The extra I studied, the extra I spotted that every part I realized about love got here from the attitude of doing. These guides, books, and seminars taught me behave, suppose, or really feel as a way to entice or keep love. However none of it resonated with a very powerful side of affection: being.
Love can’t be managed by a set of rules or methods. We can not engineer chemistry, drive somebody to be the proper accomplice, or create lasting connection by way of willpower alone. And that’s the place I went unsuitable.
Regardless of how a lot I pushed, tweaked, or optimized myself, one thing was at all times lacking. And that lacking piece wasn’t about enhancing or refining myself—it was about surrendering to the thriller of affection.
What I wanted was a real connection to my very own coronary heart—uncooked, messy, susceptible, and human. It’s about stepping away from our minds and permitting ourselves to have interaction with one another, physique and soul, as the gorgeous, advanced beings we naturally are.
Studying the Ebook Intelligence, However Bringing My Physique Alongside
I spent years absorbing the knowledge of books, pondering that information can be the important thing to unlocking love. However whereas my thoughts was soaking in all this data, my physique was nonetheless trailing behind, caught in previous patterns. I spotted that no quantity of mental understanding may remodel these deeply ingrained emotional and bodily responses.
And so, I started to lean into them.
I started to acknowledge my compulsions—these deep, visceral urges I needed to hunt down drama, romance, and even toxicity. I acknowledged how I had usually fallen right into a sample of dependancy to like, pushed by an unconscious have to really feel validated or to avoid wasting another person as a way to really feel worthy.
What I got here to appreciate is that we’re all, indirectly, on the spectrum of dependancy formed by our tradition.
This time, as a substitute of preventing or ignoring these patterns, I selected to work with them. I ended attempting to intellectualize every part and began to hear deeply to my physique. I allowed myself to sit down with the discomfort—to really feel the strain, the longing, the ache—and discover the deeper feelings behind these patterns.
It felt like I used to be standing on the sting of the deepest, darkest caverns of my soul, this little lady peering into them, not sure of what I would discover. However I knew that to maneuver ahead, I needed to face what lay inside, regardless of how scary it appeared. I allowed myself to really feel past the concern, pushing previous the reflexive bracing that normally stopped me earlier than. Slowly, I started to make peace with them, acknowledging that these have been components of me that wanted compassion and companionship.
By accepting and tending to my physique’s responses, I began to shift the emotional power that had beforehand held me captive. The extra I labored with my physique’s sensations, the extra I spotted that true therapeutic in love doesn’t simply come from the thoughts; it comes from integrating the thoughts, physique, and coronary heart.
Dependancy and the Conditioning of Love
One big piece I started to grasp as I labored by way of these emotional patterns was that we are sometimes primed by the world round us to hunt out high-intensity emotional experiences, significantly in relation to love. Our trendy world, particularly the fast-paced nature of courting at the moment, has educated us to need quick gratification—each emotionally and bodily. We stay in such a sensory-driven world that we’d not even notice the diploma to which we’re conditioned to hunt depth in each second.
It was like I wanted to deal with my emotional therapeutic and physique therapeutic as a twelve-step course of, detoxing from the patterns of in search of fast fixes and on the spot validation, and as a substitute, specializing in constructing one thing deeper and extra sustainable.
It was solely once I absolutely embraced these feelings, as a substitute of avoiding or dashing previous them, {that a} shift occurred. Sure, intellectually I knew the distinction, however I needed to work with the pulls of my nervous system in a different way. My physique was responding to the indicators of “connection” in these situations, however I wanted a brand new discernment about what I used to be actually feeling.
I started to grasp that the addictive pull of romance, drama, and pleasure was not the identical as true connection. True connection takes effort and time to construct—it requires endurance, vulnerability, and belief, fairly than the fixed chase for exterior validation and peak experiences.
The Thriller of Divine Timing
As I started to untangle myself from the addictive cycles of recent romance, I got here to appreciate one thing even deeper: the magic of divine timing. The pull of romantic need, with its highs and lows, was not the driving drive in my life. As an alternative, I started to see that the great thing about love shouldn’t be within the chase, however within the quiet, mysterious unfolding of life.
Divine timing has a method of constructing us recognize the journey, the ready, and the uncertainty of affection in a method that we can not predict. We can not drive love, rush it, or manipulate it into being.
However once we permit ourselves to be—once we combine the thoughts, physique, and coronary heart—we create area for the type of connection that actually resonates with our soul.
There may be disappointment on this thriller, sure. The uncertainty, the longing, the ready—these are all a part of the human situation.
However there may be additionally aliveness in it.
It’s this area of not understanding that teaches us to like more durable, to belief deeper, and to embrace the current second as it’s.
Divine timing shouldn’t be about ready passively, however about trusting that when the time is correct, love will discover us. And when it does, we might be prepared—not as a result of we’ve perfected ourselves or our circumstances, however as a result of we’ve realized to lean into the method, to really feel each second deeply, and to belief that love will come when it’s meant to.
Letting Go of the “How-To” and Embracing the “Being”
There’s a profound distinction between pursuing love by way of methods and opening your self to like by merely being your self. The previous can go away you drained and disconnected out of your genuine self, whereas the latter permits area for real connection to flourish naturally.
After I let go of the concept I needed to do one thing to make love work, I began to expertise relationships in a very new method. I realized to belief the ebb and circulation of connection, permitting the journey to unfold because it was meant to.
I additionally started to see love in a extra conscious method—not restricted to romantic love, however as one thing multidimensional and throughout me. These tender moments of pure kindness, heat, or generosity from anybody, wherever, jogged my memory that I’m a human being, not a human striving.
As I mirror on the teachings I’ve realized, I see that being a “human soul” means embracing the unknowns of life—particularly in love. No quantity of preparation or information will assure an ideal relationship.
What issues most is that we present up as our true, susceptible selves. And once we do, love will discover us—not on account of our efforts to draw it, however as a result of it’s a part of the pure circulation of life.
Merely Be Human
Carl Jung’s phrases ring more true now than ever: we will know all of the theories, grasp all of the methods, however on the finish of the day, we should permit ourselves to easily be human. Being a “human soul” additionally means permitting others to be human souls too—seeing their messiness with grace, accepting their flaws, and never attempting to mildew them into one thing they aren’t.
It’s about embracing the gorgeous chaos of being human, each in ourselves and in others. The journey towards love isn’t about attaining perfection or fixing a puzzle. It’s about being current, trusting the method, and embracing vulnerability. It’s about letting go of the necessity for management and trusting in divine timing.
The irony is all of the “how-to” guides and techniques for love can solely take us to date. Sooner or later, we have to transfer past following directions and permit ourselves to expertise love absolutely—uncooked, unfiltered, and human, from the within out.
I’ve discovered a deeper connection occurs once we combine our coronary heart, thoughts, and physique—once we cease compartmentalizing and let all components of ourselves be current.
It’s about feeling deeply, pondering actually, and being grounded in our bodily expertise. Once we present up with this sort of alignment, love is not one thing to chase or obtain however one thing that flows naturally from inside.
I believe it’s stunning—nearly transcendent—to consider love this manner, as one thing that exists within the rawness of our true selves, not in some idealized model of who we expect we needs to be or a guidelines to be marked, however the energy of connection and the unimaginable enlargement it brings when it occurs.

About Emily Brown
Emily Brown is a trauma-informed REBT mindset coach, MBSR-trained mom, author, podcast host, humanities professor, and communications knowledgeable. With a grasp’s diploma in Girls’s Research and English from Previous Dominion College and a certificates in constructive psychology from UC Berkeley, she explores relationships, parenting, and the facility of language in shaping values. Her work combines tutorial rigor with real-world expertise. EmilyBrownConsulting.com
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