If there were two human emotions that could be felt universally, it’d have to be love and fear. And sometimes those two things go together like peanut butter and jelly. The pair of feelings seems to rely on each other to exist. You can’t possibly love something or someone if you didn’t also experience the fear of losing it. You wouldn’t have fear if you didn’t love something or someone enough to be scared of losing it.

They cannot exist without each other, yet they seem to constantly impede one another.

It seems like this is common at the beginning of relationships. Everything is so new, so fresh, so unknown. It’s that uncertainty that begins to stir a fear in yourself. It begins to stir up insecurities you didn’t know you had. Because you know you care a lot about the other person. You’ve invested time and feelings into this thing – without any certainty that it might work out. There’s zero assurance that the smile this person gives you is only temporary.

So you freak the f*ck out and ruin it all. Just kidding, I hope not, but maybe you start to overthink. You overanalyze. You self-sabotage. Every text, all the body language, every word from their lips is under a microscope because you’re living in a state of both love and fear. And until that runs its course, you’re left to either live in this state of fear or to allow yourself to live through it and accept what happens next.

All of that sounds just insane, right? Does love have to be that complicated? No, but love is ALWAYS complicated. Love is a simple concept that’s complicated to execute. You can’t expect yourself to be perfect at it. And you certainly don’t need to make it harder on yourself by living in the fear of it. Instead, why aren’t you just allowing yourself to believe in life, and in its course? Instead of thinking too much about love and how to do it the right way at the right time, why don’t you just do it?

So, why not follow your instinct? Follow your gut. Express your feelings. Strive to be with the person who stirs up love in your heart, and maybe a little bit of healthy fear. No matter how difficult it may be, go for it. Trust yourself to know that you’re making the right choice by using your heart to push you towards what or who you want. And maybe go into it without thinking that it’s not going to work, because the only thing you can ever be sure of is the way you’re feeling right here, right now.

The only thing that you can know is that there is no one or no thing that you’d rather have right now. Why would you allow fear to get in the way of that? The worst that could happen is that you don’t get your way. And isn’t that beautiful? In exchange for expressing your true emotions, you can have them reciprocated, or you’re given a beautiful lesson that forever proves your humanity. Why would you deprive yourself of that because you’re fearful for the unknown? Why would you allow yourself to use your brain in places that are meant for the heart?

Stop living through the fear. Stop living in the doubt. Begin to think less and feel more. Go with your gut. Feel all of it, and think nothing of it.

Feel all the love or hope or happiness without letting your brain overcomplicate it. Feel without thinking about the proper procedures to do so. Feel without holding back, so it’s jarring to your soul in all the best ways. Feel so you become closer in tune with yourself, so once you get back to thinking, you’re not overthinking. You’re simply speaking with a mindful heart. Instead of allowing fear to take over your thought process, you allow love to fill it up.

In the end, love is not a procedure to be well-thought out. Love is not something that involves timing. It does not involve being in the right place at the right time. It does not exist to be calculated. It is not a thought-out plan that one must execute with perfection and grace. It is there to be felt. It is there to consume you, so that your thoughts don’t matter anymore. To experience it fully, you need to think less, and feel more.