When you think you need their love
How do you react when you think that you need people's love?
Do you become a slave for their approval? Do you live an inauthentic life because you can't bear the thought that they might disapprove of you?
Do you try to figure out how they would like you to be, and then try to become that, like a chameleon? In fact, you can never really get their love this way. You try to turn into someone you are not, and then when they say "I Love You", you can't believe it, because they are loving a facade. They are loving someone who doesn't exist, the person you are pretending to be.
It is difficult to seek other people's love.
It is deadly.
In seeking it, you lose what is genuine.
This is the prison we create for ourselves as we try to get love from other people.
We basically enslave ourselves ....
Source: "I need your Love: Is that True?" by Byron Katie, with simple editing.
Just a thought
From the same book (page 70)
How can you know that a particular relationship is good or not? When you are out of sync with goodness, you know it: You aren't happy. And if a relationship is anything less than good, you need to question your thoughts. It's your responsibility to find your own way back to a relationship with yourself that makes sense.
When you have that sweet relationship with yourself, your partner is an added pleasure. It's over-the-top grace.
Romantic love is the story of how you need another person to complete you. It's an absolutely insane story.
My experience is that I need no one to complete me. As soon as I realize that, everyone completes me.