Trying to conceptualize love — to understand it, define it, or finally get it right in your own life — can feel like a complicated game you never quite win. People often try to read or reflect on the promise to try to do things differently. Yet, somehow, the same patterns can seem to circle back. It’s not that you don’t want love or that you’re not ready for it. Unconsciously, you may have built habits that keep you safe but also keep you stuck.

Most people don’t sabotage their relationships like this intentionally. It happens subtly, and often through patterns that feel harmless in the moment but create distance. These patterns don’t mean you’re broken or incapable of love, and it’s important to keep this as a reminder so as to not fall into a cycle of blame or guilt. Everyone builds certain protective patterns unconsciously to stay safe in the only way they know.

Here are two habits that might be unknowingly blocking love from fully entering your life and how to begin opening up to it again.

Love requires patience to grow and evolve. Yet in today’s dating culture, everything........

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