A woman falls for a man who offers her safety,

not just physical protection, but emotional presence.

The kind of safety where her nervous system can relax,

where she doesn’t have to perform, please, or prove herself to be loved.

A man falls for a woman who lives authentically,

who isn’t trying to be perfect,

but who dares to be fully herself,

raw, radiant, and real.

A woman longs to trust a man,

not just with her body, but with her heart, her stories, her tenderness.

She wants to rest in a love that won’t abandon her when she softens.

A man searches for peace in a woman,

a refuge from the chaos of the world,

a space where he doesn’t have to armor up,

where he can lay his burdens down without judgment.

Women often fear commitment,

not because they don’t want love, but because love has cost them too much before.

They know what it means to give everything and lose themselves in return.

Men often fear commitment,

not because they don’t feel deeply,

but because they were never taught how to be emotionally naked without being shamed or seen as weak.

Women sometimes hurt men, not because they are cruel, but because they are protecting wounds no one ever asked about.

They close their hearts before someone else can shatter them.

Men sometimes hurt women emotionally,

not out of malice, but from old patterns of shutting down, defending, hiding, or disappearing when feelings get too big.

Women often leave when connection is lost,

when their emotional needs are no longer met,

when presence turns into absence,

and love becomes a ghost.

Men often leave when fear overtakes love:

fear of not being enough,

of being seen too deeply,

of not knowing how to meet the depth they sense in her.

Women cheat when they feel unseen, untouched, emotionally neglected and invisible inside a relationship they once poured their whole being into.

Men cheat when they feel inadequate,

seeking to fill an inner void with momentary validation, masking insecurity with attention.

But underneath it all,

we are not that different.

We all want love that feels safe.

We all long to be seen in our fullness.

We all carry stories we don’t yet know how to tell.

And we’re all just trying to love with the skills and the capabilities that we have at that moment.

Some of us are still learning.

Some of us are healing.

Some of us are remembering how to love in a way that doesn’t hurt.

And some of us are breaking the cycles, 

so the next time we love, we can stay open.

May we all learn to love without fear.

May we offer what we seek.

May our hearts become places of refuge,

Where love doesn’t mean losing ourselves,

But finally coming home.

Aniela🤍

www.MindfulTherapist.us

Photo: Pinterest