Love language is a concept that describes the ways that people receive and express love in a relationship. Knowing your partner’s love language and letting them know yours can help you ensure you both feel loved and appreciated in your relationship. Therefore, you may want to learn more about the five love languages to show your partner that you care, and vice versa.
1. Words of Affirmation
When words of affirmation is your love language, words build you up. You thrive on spoken affection, praise, encouragement, and compliments. Harsh words and criticism can bother you for a long time. As someone whose love language is this, nothing quite beats the feeling of receiving a love letter or small note of appreciation to show that I am loved.
2. Physical Touch
If holding hands, kisses, hugs, and other touches are your preferred way to receive love, physical touch is your love language. You feel that appropriate touches convey warmth and safety, while physical neglect can drive a wedge between you and your partner.
3. Receiving Gifts
To you, nothing says you’re loved like a thoughtful gift. On the other hand, generic gifts and forgotten special events have the opposite effect. Understand that this love language doesn’t necessarily mean that one’s materialistic – it could be as simple as receiving your favorite snack after a bad day.
4. Quality Time
When you speak this love language, undivided attention shows you that you are special. When your partner plans around their busy schedule to see you AND is truly present (and not looking at their phone), it makes you feel important. Failure to actively listen or long periods without one-on-one time can make you feel unloved.
5. Acts of Service
Anything that your partner does willingly to ease your workload is a sign of love to you. You feel cared for when your partner makes you breakfast as a surprise, or does house chores before you get to it. In contrast, broken promises or laziness can make you feel unimportant.
How learning your love language can improve your relationship:
Most of us have one or two preferred love languages – often different than our other half’s. So, if you express your love through your preferred love language, chances are that it goes unnoticed by your partner.
Say that your love language is gifts, and you often surprise your partner with thoughtful gifts. How does it make you feel when they just have a quick look at your thoughtful present? Meanwhile, your partner hardly values gifts but appreciates acts of service. It would mean the world to them if you did chores around the house instead of buying gifts.
Learning to speak your partner’s preferred language can drastically strengthen your relationship.
