Happy Friday!!! Yay! This has been a very busy and anxious week for me. But I’m done with my summer class lectures (6 hours a week!) so that’ll free up a lot of time (group project and final exam still yet to come though).
Tonight, I’m heading to my friend Michaela’s condo for girls’ night, and then tomorrow, I’m helping out on this cool project. I made an Instagram friend who is launching her own fashion app, and I’m going to be a part of one of the photo shoots. I don’t know what I can and can’t say, but I’ll let you guys know more about it later.
Today, for Tia Talks, I wanted to discuss love languages. Have you guys read Gary Chapman’s book on the 5 love languages? I actually haven’t, but it’s something that I remember discussing in my one of my communication classes back in college. The idea is that there are 5 ways of expressing and experiencing love (that’s not limited to couples – also with your family and friends). The author argues that people have a primary and a secondary love language.
5 Love Languages
- words of affirmation
- quality time
- physical touch
- giving/receiving gifts
- acts of service
What’s your love language? Mine is “words of affirmation.” Chris’s is “acts of service.” I tell him that he has it easier because all he has to do is to give me verbal encouragement, but I actually have to do stuff for him, haha.
I think it’s important in relationships to understand what others’ love languages are. If you’re speaking opposing love languages, it’s easy to reject or brush off someone else’s attempt to show they care. Or to have your attempt go unnoticed. For example, my parents were never big on words of affirmation or physical touch (hugging) when I was growing up. They saw it to be more important to go out all and make me a really labor intensive dinner. Or my mom would end up buying me a small gift that I didn’t want or appreciate. I really would have preferred a hug and them saying “we’re really proud of you.”
One thing that I’ve observed from my parents’ relationship is that my mom loves giving and receiving presents, but my dad hates both. So she buys him presents, which he could care less to receive, and then he doesn’t necessarily get her something, because he thinks presents are dumb, and she’s bummed about it. I think we often get stuck and do for others what we wish for ourselves. Instead of doing what they want.
What’s your love language? How does it differ to those who are close to you?
Shop the Post
