How do you know if you are falling in love?

A lot of people would say that falling in love is the best feeling in the whole world, that nothing can come close to this. Just look at the couples that have been together for over a decade. Most of them still remember how things started between them.

Falling in love is one of the most incredible events that anyone may experience, but the problem is that most people tend to mistake lust and infatuation for love. This begs the question as to how do you know if you’re falling in love?

Let’s first look at what people go through with infatuation and lust, since most of the time people tend to mistake these two for love.

Lust is defined in the dictionary as a great sexual attraction towards another. Lust doesn’t necessarily mean that the person that’s lusting wants to make love (although things might not be far from it). What happens instead is that the lusting person is mostly concerned with physical intimacy.

If you find yourself thinking that you’re in love with someone else but you only think of physical intimacy (such as holding hands, cuddling, kissing etc) then there’s a big chance that you’re only experiencing lust.

Now let’s talk about infatuation, this needs a more thorough look since this is a more common case compared to lust. A dictionary definition for infatuation is a foolish and sometimes extravagant admiration for another.

If you find yourself always looking at somebody or always imagining yourself with them then it’s unsure whether you’re in love or you’re infatuated. But if you find yourself in this situation but you don’t personally know (or have only known for a short time) the person that you think you’re in love with, then you’re surely infatuated.

If you find yourself easily being turned off by one flaw of that person then this is an even bigger sign of infatuation. Infatuation is mostly superficial in a sense that you only admire the person. You think that you’re in love with the person only because of his or her achievements, status, looks and whatever shallow reason you might have; and without it you find yourself “out of love”.

Now that you know how you can tell if you’re only feeling lust or infatuation, how do you know if you’re falling in love? Let’s list down a few things that will hopefully answer this question.

You’re falling in love with someone if you see another person flirting with your special someone, and you’re feeling angry that you can’t even explain it.
This couldn’t be more proof that you’re falling hard and fast. You don’t want any other people going near your special someone and in the case when someone does go near, you immediately get angry.

You’re falling in love if you can’t go by a day without establishing communication with that person.
People are naturally social beings, but even though we’re social beings, we can still last a day or two without talking to most of our friends or family. But when it comes to someone special, you can’t last a day without communicating with them. If you haven’t seen them for the whole day, you can’t help but at least send them a text message.

You’re falling in love when you don’t get turned off with any of the flaws of that person.
You tend to overlook or completely ignore that person’s flaws no matter what it is. You’re used to seeing her with make-up but then you see her fresh out of bed, and you couldn’t care less. When he farts in front of you, you couldn’t help but laugh and respond with your own fart.

You not only ignore that person’s flaws but in some cases you actually even grow to admire that person even more because of those flaws.

You’re falling in love when you suddenly can’t help but be happy when you just think about that person.
If you can’t help but smile from ear-to-ear whenever her face pops into your head and you get a shocking feeling all over, then you’re most likely in love. You can’t help but be happy when you’re thinking about that person; you’ll smile even if you’re having a bad day.

You’re falling in love when you find yourself doing crazy things.
As Meg said to Hercules (1997 Disney movie: Hercules): “People always do crazy things, when they’re in love”. Crazy here doesn’t mean that you’re going to save your loved one from a 2-ton falling pillar; what this means is that you’re doing things that you wouldn’t normally do.

If you find yourself waiting under the scorching sun while waiting for her to come out of her home, or if you find yourself spending hours preparing for your date then either you’re already in love, or you’re falling hard.

You’re falling in love when you find inspiration with that person.
Imagine that you have a big project coming up and you’re completely stressed out. But then, he or she calls you on your phone and motivates you to finishing your work. When other people do that to you, you will most likely ignore the motivational speech; but when your special someone does it you suddenly find yourself inspired.

This might be the most important item in this list: you’re falling in love when you’re your most true self with that person.
Whenever you’re with that person you don’t need to pretend and you don’t need to put on a mask. You’re just yourself without actually being aware of it. You’re comfortable showing that person who you really are without any fears of rejection.

You find yourself not needing to hide anything because you know that he or she accepts you no matter what.

There are a lot of other ways to know if you’re falling in love with someone. These things are only a few of those many ways. An important thing in such cases is to know what the difference with lust, infatuation and love is. But the most important thing would be to give things enough time to grow. Love is not something that happens overnight; it’s something that grows as time passes.

Falling in love is probably the most amazing feeling that you’ll experience in your whole life, so give it time to grow and do your best to understand things completely.