This is when you really know you are in love with someone

What is the ultimate sign of falling in love? The whole of humanity will probably never tire of asking this question.

As humans, the need to find an answer to this, to satisfy this curiosity is one thing that we find ourselves coming back to, over and over again.

There are tons of articles online with tips and pointers on how to know that you are falling in love with a guy or girl you just met; many of these articles dwelling on racing heartbeats, an inability to get the person off your mind, butterflies in the stomach, a desire to spend more time with said person, among others. But really, is this what it takes to know that you are falling for someone?

While all those signs above cannot be discredited, they are more associated with attraction rather than love. Attraction and love are quite intertwined but they are not the same. You can be attracted to someone and not be in love with them. On the other hand, it is quite impossible to feel a romantic type of love for someone without being attracted to them.

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Love is deeper than what you feel when the person has makeup on, or when they’re doing stuff for you. (Video Blocks)

Having said that, the real pointer to love most times is mutuality. When you meet someone new and become attracted to them, it is shared values and common ideas that really determine whether or not you fall in love with such person. When ‘love’ is based on looks only, it is attraction.

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Love in its genuine form springs from a place deeper than the physique on a man, or the curves on a woman. It does not stop at what they do for you or what they are capable of doing for you. It is the entirety of their being. How they react to situations, how their mind works, their outlook to life, their beliefs and ideals… the whole nine yards.

This is why it is advised that you send a lot of time together and be friends with someone before thinking it is love.

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If you do not know them enough, you can never claim to truly love them. (NonParents)

And it is until you spend significant time with someone and see many aspects of their soul before you really know that what you feel is love, or if it is just an attraction driven by your desire to have sex with such person or just be with them for the things they can do for you or get for you.

If your love for someone is determined long before you get to see their soul and become acquainted with the way they really are, you may soon discover that the love you felt was actually not love.