3. Love is not always worth sacrificing yourself. One of the defining characteristics of loving someone is that you are able to think outside of yourself and your own needs to help care for another person and their needs as well.

But the question that doesn't get asked often enough is exactly what are you sacrificing, and is it worth it?

In loving relationsh.i.p.s, it's normal for both people to occasionally sacrifice their own desires, their own needs, and their own time for one another. I would argue that this is normal and healthy and a big part of what makes a relationship so great.

But when it comes to sacrificing one's self-respect, one's dignity, one's physical body, one's ambitions and life purpose, just to be with someone, then that same love becomes problematic. A loving relationship is supposed to supplement our individual identity, not damage it or replace it. If we find ourselves in situations where we're tolerating disrespectful or abusive behavior, then that's essentially what we're doing: we're allowing our love to consume us and negate us, and if we're not careful, it will leave us as a shell of the person we once were.