I used to think that grief was something that you have purely as a result of losing love. While that is certainly true, now I see that it is also present as we open to receiving love. There are four noteworthy reasons some people experience deep sadness when they fall in love. 

Four Reasons You Feel Grief When You Fall In Love 

1. The idea of losing them

We are grieving the idea of losing them as we open to loving them. This is why love is also accompanied with a sacred tension where we are simultaneously feeling what it will be like to lose them one day, whilst also opening to loving them.

To love fully is to accept loss fully.

2. Grieving the things you have to let go of to be fully open

If we have never truly sat with the grief of our losses we will not be able to open up fully. Our ceiling in intimacy will live within the limit of our own ability to hold the depth that grief requires. 

Which leads perfectly to the next...

3. Regretting the love you didn't show up for

 If we are opening up more than we ever have we will inevitable grieve that we have left love on the table. Every time we go deeper, open more fully, we are witnessing our past through what was possible with this new lens of awareness. 

This is true of all awarenesses, however it is especially true in recognizing how we show up to relationships. A lot of us get stuck here, in the space of regret, not realizing that there is a present moment now lacking our full attention because we’re hoping for a better past. 

We wish we could’ve shown up better, or different, thinking we’d have a different life, and we miss living this one and creating magic now.

4. Realizing how little love you show yourself

As we open our hearts more fully to them we're exploring if we give ourselves the same level of love. 

Are we as committed to ourselves as we are to them? Are we as willing to go to the moon and back, to fight for the love with them, as we are for ourselves? 

These are painful and powerful mirrors that require exploration only available through the lens of relational possibility. The pain of this awareness requires immediate restoration, or it will lead to addictions, self-sabotage, and a myriad of other distractions in order to avoid claiming the power of alignment.

I think this has many dimensions in the context of romantic love. It roots us. It grounds us. It demands to be felt. It is the descent into our forgotten selves. If we’re willing to feel it, we will liberate our totality.

I think we’re afraid of it because we are afraid of how powerful we’ll be once we remember what we’ve forgotten. We don’t necessarily trust we can hold it, not realizing we are simultaneously grieving that we pretend it’s not there.

Somewhere in some dimension all of that makes sense to me. I hope that makes sense to you.

Mark Groves is a Human Connection Specialist, founder of Create the Love, co-author of Liberated Love, and host of the Mark Groves Podcast. Mark's work bridges the academic and the human, inviting people to explore the good, the bad, the downright ugly, and the beautiful sides of connection.

This article was originally published at Mark Groves' substack. Reprinted with permission from the author.