Definition of Love?

A couple episodes ago of How I Met Your Mother, Ted has a little breakdown about his feelings for Robin.  He said:

"Actually there is a word for that, it's love.  I'm in love with her, okay?  If you're looking for the word that means caring about someone beyond all rationality and wanting them to have everything they want no matter how much it destroys you, it's love.  And when you love someone you don't stop - ever.  Even when people roll their eyes or call your crazy - even then, especially then.  You don't just give up, because if I could give up, if I could just take the whole world's advice and move on and find someone else, that wouldn't be love - that would be some other disposable thing that is not worth fighting for.  But, that's not what this is."

I didn't go to a yoga class yesterday (shameful) but I do think a lot about love during yoga.  I specifically think about it during the end of the class before and after savasana.  One major piece of yoga is learning to love yourself and others; to project love to those around you.

So what exactly is love, what does it mean, and how do you know when you love someone?  Not just in a romantic sense but also others.  Is it true that love is just a chemical reaction in the brain?  That love is just an attachment to someone or something.  Is it true that some people aren't capable of love?  What about Carrie Bradshaw and her search for "real love. ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other-love."  Or, Sarah from Rumor Has It who says "I didn't come here to tell you that I can't live without you.  I can live without you, I just don't want to?"  Aren't these two statements going against each other and what love means?

One thing I have learned during my practice has been to stop looking for love, stop trying to define or rationalize love, and not pick and choose who to love.  You can't do any of this until you love the most important person in your life - yourself.

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well that’s fabulous.” - Carrie Bradshaw

So, thanks Sex and the City and yoga.  What an awesome combo you make because you have taught me that before I can love someone else, I need to love myself.

"I have been a seeker and I still am.  But, I stopped asking the books and the stars.  I started listening to the teachings of my Soul." - Rumi