Why You Should Love Recklessly

By Lisa Basquez for GalTime.com

When I first read the book "He's Just Not That Into You" by Greg Behrendt one of the statements he made that stuck out to me (and with me) was his claim that "you are not the exception". The logic is that men generally behave in a predictable way and as much as we women like to make excuses, we should save ourselves the heartache and assume that if a man isn't behaving in certain ways that he just isn't into us. I think Greg is really onto something here and if you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it.

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BUT I also think that this "I am not the exception" kind of thinking has some drawbacks. Women (ok, maybe just me) have used this logic as an impenetrable defense against letting someone in who just *might* be into us. I wonder how many women have hidden their hearts behind the idea that it is better to be safe than it is to be heartbroken? I wonder how many times women have sabotaged a potential chance at loving in the interests of "not getting hurt"?

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Notice I didn't say a chance at being loved but rather at loving someone else. What if we have this love thing all wrong and it's not really about what you can get but what you can give to someone else? What if the love lesson is nothing more than expanding your limits, learning to love without expectation or demand and getting out of your safe zone?

As I've pondered this, I have recognized my own tendency to take calculated risks. I don't gamble and I generally only take safe bets; bets where I either know I'll win or I'm not wagering enough to matter. I mean, sure it's brave to skydive or bungee jump but with all the safety controls in place, it's really not that risky. True risk is when we're not sure of the outcome and we jump anyway.

I don't believe in being foolish but I do believe that there are some risks that are worth taking. Anytime we open our hearts to another individual, we are opening ourselves to the possibility of being hurt, heartbroken or disappointed. In fact, chances are that no matter how perfect our partner may be, we will be all those things anyway (hello, humanity!). The question for each of us to answer on our own is whether the ride is worth the fall. If you can learn to look at every situation, circumstance and person who comes into your life as having something vital to teach you, I believe it can be.

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So maybe you get heartbroken in the end. But maybe along the way you learn some things about yourself: maybe you learn that you can love deeper than you thought possible. Maybe you learn that you can face adversity in a new way. Maybe you learn that love can bring out vibrancy in your life you didn't know before.

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