Ever notice how good it feels to love? When you’re in love, the world seems a brighter, shinier place. You wake up with a smile on your face and can’t wait to get your day going and perhaps connect with the object of your bright, shiny love. That’s what we usually equate with love, a significant other on which we project our desire, and we only feel half of a whole without them. It’s that feeling of the love that loves through you that feels so good.

But what about those folks who don’t have a particular person on whom to lavish their bright shiny love at the moment, does that mean that they are denied this great feeling?

All is not lost. I love the saying: “You never run out of people to love.” It’s so true. Since it’s the feeling of the love flowing through you that feels so good, you can spend this love however you like in many different ways. There are so many people in the world to love, so many people that need and want love. Every day at work, at play, or shopping, we run across people who want and need love. In your friendships, there is an absolutely wonderful opportunity to love and to be loved. There are pets to love, there are gardens to love, there is music to love—the list is endless. In fact, whatever your particular interests in life are—art, teaching, health, healing, nature, cooking, or kayaking—in pursuing what you love, you will find opportunities to love.

It’s funny that the more you love, the lovelier you become. We all know people, who perhaps did not fit People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People requirements for beauty, but they are absolutely beautiful nonetheless. You wanted to be around them and spend time with them because it felt good. They seemed to have these beautiful waves of joy coming off them. These folks have the answer: it’s the loving that makes us lovely. It’s the loving of who we are, what we are, and what’s around us that makes us attractive and draws others to us.

There are several Greek words for love, as the Greek language distinguishes how the word is used. The Ancient Greek had at least four distinct words for love. Agape is love of all of mankind. Philia or Philos is brotherly love of friends, family. Eros is romantic, sexual love. Lastly, there is one called Storge, which applies to situations like old friends connecting after a long time  when things appear to pick up exactly where they left off, even if many decades have intervened. Just as the Eskimos have many words for snow, the Greeks thought that love needed to be categorized, that it was just too big an emotion to be contained in one word.

The very best kind of love is unconditional love. Unconditional love means there are no conditions attached to the love you love. You love others just as they are. Others don’t have to behave in a certain way, look a certain way, or do a certain thing in order to be loved. It’s what we all yearn for, to be loved without condition. I feel that if we can learn to love others unconditionally, we will come closer and closer to being loved that way ourselves. The universal law of like-attracts-like will demand it. But once again, the joy is not in being loved (although we can’t deny that it feels very nice); the joy is in feeling the unconditional love flowing through us.

The greatest power known to man is that of unconditional love. Unconditional love is an unlimited way of being. There are so many ways to apply love in our everyday lives. This magnificent planet if filled with opportunities to experience love. When we, as individuals, realize our potential to love unconditionally, we transform ourselves and the planet at the same time. Such is the power we wield every moment of every day. Every moment of every day is a new beginning, for us to choose and choose again. The wonderful energy of unconditional love is available merely by use of conscious recognition. When we choose to love one another, we transcend the lower personality and rise to a higher truth.

As noted author Deepak Chopra says, “Love is considered the most basic emotion that human awareness can feel; therefore, it is the closest to the source of life. The burst of well-being you feel when you fall in love is due to the fact that you unconsciously open the channels of awareness that allow more Prana (Life Force) to flow.” And this is why it feels so good to love.

Sherry Kulakowski lives and works in Virginia Beach. You may reach her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .