They’re the hardest words in the world to say: I Love You. Wall St. Journal columnist Elizabeth Bernstein recently enjoyed some fun banter with the host of the journal’s News Hub over just why that is. She suggests it’s because you’re taking a risk, putting yourself out there with no guarantee that your feelings will be reciprocated. Saying I Love You is dangerous. To help, WSJ produced a short tongue-in-cheek template to help people share their affections – from ‘I like you’ to ‘I really like you’ to ‘I love you’, with a long list of tick boxes about what it is that makes you feel that way. Maybe not romantic, but fun and a welcome prod towards a fully-fledged, heart-felt declaration of amore.
Bernstein offers some more tips in her column. Gimmicks aside she points out that unless we’re willing to take a leap of faith, there aren’t really any substitutes for those three little words. We know it in our hearts and science confirms it – a source of Bernstein’s notes that when we look someone in the eye and tell them how we feel, a bonding chemical is released. In a VUCA (Volatile, Unreal, Crazy, Ambiguous) world we could all use a natural pick-me-up. So why not say it to someone you love today?
