The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

Our emotional tank stores the feelings and memories of when others have expressed their love for us. In order to run at maximum efficiency, our emotional tank needs to be filled. When it feels empty, it is because we have experienced a lack of loving communication from our partner. Learning to speak the love languages will ensure that we can keep the emotional tank of our loved ones filled to the brim.

The ecstatic, out-of-body experience that characterizes the initial sparks of romantic attachment are known as euphoria (a Greek word that literally means “to carry something well,” “to be healthy,” or “to exist in a desirable way.”) The feeling of romantic euphoria is a universal experience. However, it is ephemeral. In the majority of instances it fades and returns only in spurts. Mature and intentional love carries a relationship past the state of euphoria into the state of true and lasting love.

As Chapman notes, we use the word “love” for many things. We can say that we love pizza in the same sentence that we say we love our mother, or that we love life, or God. Sometimes it is a physical or sexual attraction, other times it’s an attraction based on another type of need or desire, like our need for water when we’re thirsty, or our need for affection or care when we think of our family or friends. Ultimately, love is a choice that we make to care for the good of another.