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Are You Longing for or Wanting Someone You Can’t Have?
There is so much more to longing than we’d like to think
Some wishes don’t come true. Admitting this truth to ourselves is painful. Especially when they are fantasies with someone, we can’t have. Lexi Herrick sums the state of longing up perfectly:
“Missing is felt by the mind, and longing is endured by the totality of one’s being”.
This strong and persistent desire to be with someone we can’t have is excruciatingly painful — and a feeling that is difficult to put into words. What might have started as a fling or innocent flirt can become much more painful and harder to get over than initially thought.
When we long for someone, we put love or the idea of love at the top of our hierarchy of wants and needs. Longings reflect our search for happiness and meaning and the struggle to cope with losses and unrealizable wishes.
Wanting something that appears to make life better.
But what are unrealizable wishes? And how are they linked to our most essential life desires? Almost everyone has had the sensation of wanting something that we believe will make life better and more full yet is out of reach.