“We are most alive when we are in love.”

Love is one of the most beautiful things in the world, and it is an intense desire of humans to be loved. Love has many types. At the beginning of every relationship, every couple seems passionate. But with the passing years, there comes so many changes in emotions that a couple has at the start of a relationship than they feel years later. At the beginning of love, the romance between the couple seems to reach its peak.

According to Psychologist Elaine Hatfield, romantic love has two different types i.e.

• Passionate love
• Compassionate love

There is a difference between passionate love and compassionate love, and both these terms for love refer to two different situations that a person may experience in a relationship. 

Passionate Love:

Passionate love is about the intense feelings a couples feel for each other. They get involved so much that they feel incomplete without each other. Few are the signs of passionate love:

• They can’t imagine life without each other.
• The couple wants to spend time together.
• They have strong feelings for each other.
• They get strongly attracted to each other in terms of physical relationship.
• They both want to know each and everything about each other.
• They intend to believe that their relationship is free from faults.
• They enjoy each other’s company. 
• The couple has dreams and plans together.
• In passionate love, when there comes a breakup stage, because of certain circumstances and they experience extreme stress.
• In most cases, the couple faces many breakup periods, fights, shouting, scandals, frequent sexual contact, and outbursts of love.

Compassionate Love

Compassionate love has its level of intimacy. In compassionate love, the feeling for each other does not seem overwhelming. Although there are emotions in compassionate love, the couple likes to live in the real world rather than not accepting the realities of life. The intensity level in compassionate love is not as high as in passionate love. 

• Compassionate love relationships are based on mutual understanding and trust.
• The couple genuinely knows each other, but they don’t have overwhelming emotions for other.
• These couples mostly support each other in times of need.
• They have long-term commitments based on mutual understanding.

Difference between Passionate and Compassionate Love:

• Passionate love involves intense emotions for each other, whereas compassionate love is the bundle of concerns that the couple feels for each other.
• The stems of passionate love grow within an individual, whereas compassionate love grows externally.
• Passionate love is based on extreme passions, sexual desire, and jealousy to get each other’s attention, whereas compassionate love is the name of intimacy, trust, commitment, and affection.
• Passionate love has a short-term life, whereas Compassionate love remains for a long period of time.
• Passionate love is intense and fleeting, whereas compassionate love is more likely to stand the test of time.
• A passionate couple likes to live in a world of fascination, and compassionate love demands accepting life’s realities with mutual understanding.

Final Thoughts:

To be loved is one of the utmost desires of a human being. If you are in a relationship with anyone, try to maintain a balance. According to the research, only those relationships stay strong and long-lasting in which couples understand the difference between compassionate and passionate love. Friendship, romance, enjoyment, self-esteem, and trust are a few elements that make a balanced relationship and keep the love forever. Enjoy adventures together and rekindle romantic love, dinner dates if you feel the flames of love are getting low between both of you. Remember that the effect of time can be detrimental to both types of love.

            “There is one true happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”