Reposted from: http://elitedaily.com/dating/miss-the-idea-of-them/1029703/

Written by: Paul Hudson

Are people capable of missing anything or anyone? Or are we only missing our interpretation and memory of that thing or person?

It sounds like the same thing, but it’s really not.

In essence, we aren’t actually capable of missing or loving anyone for the exact person he or she is.

Instead, we are only capable of loving and appreciating people and things for who or what we understand them to be.

This is obviously reason for concern, but at the same time, it explains quite a bit in terms of how it’s possible for our emotions and the love we feel to be so incredibly fickle.

People judge — we all do. It’s the way we were built, and it will never, ever change. By judging, we create a set of beliefs that we have about an individual. As the relationship grows, we tweak.

Sometimes, however, our interpretations of that person are way off the mark — which is one reason people fall out of love.

They fall out of love with the person they thought they knew because they’ve grown to understand the person who actually exists — and it’s not the same person.

People interpret, then recollect and slightly alter their memory of that person before again interpreting that memory of that particular individual. People are f*cking complicated.

Sometimes the way we remember someone is very similar to the person he or she actually is — or, at the very least, once was.

But we like to romanticize.

We like to focus in on the way someone made us feel rather than the way he or she acted and treated us.

By doing so, we focus in on those strong, pleasant emotions and allow them to cloud our entire memory of an individual.

Again, sometimes this memory is right on the mark. Sometimes we have every reason to miss someone. Unfortunately, the opposite is just as likely to be true.

Sometimes you don’t miss the person but instead miss the idea of him or her.

This person treated you like sh*t, but you can only remember the good times.

You miss having someone in your life — it’s completely understandable. People don’t like to be alone.

Yes, some of us manage much better than others, but it’s just about always due to necessity.

No one chooses to be entirely alone unless he or she has some psychological issues.

Sure, we all like to be alone from time to time, but only from time to time. Inevitably, we’ll get lonely and want to have someone in our lives to share our lives with. It’s completely natural and nothing at all to be ashamed of.

What you should be ashamed of is allowing yourself to miss people who treated you like garbage.

They may have been incredibly nice to you on special occasions, but life isn’t full of special occasions.

If it were, then there would cease to be a need for the term.

If you’re missing someone who would constantly hurt you because he or she simply did not care, then you need to take a step back, take some time to get reacquainted with your reality.

You cannot allow yourself to be all right with being used and mistreated. You simply can’t allow it.

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You only miss this person when you feel alone.

There’s actually a very easy way to differentiate between true love and everything else we confuse to be love. People miss someone from their past when they are lonely or sad.

The same people look into their past for someone to lean on when they need someone to lean on, but have no one to turn to.

That’s not love — that’s you grasping at straws. When life is difficult, we never want to be alone because having someone in our lives would make things easier.

As human beings, we’re always interested in making things easier.

This isn’t real love. It’s loneliness stretching our imaginations and allowing us to dwell on memories that are more interpretation and less actual reality.

If you seem to only miss someone during the hard times, then try not to be fooled into believing you actually miss him or her.

On the other hand, if you can miss someone even during your happiest moments, then you have a true reason for missing that individual.

If you look at your life and all the happiness you feel, and the first thing that comes to mind is, “If only she (or he) were here to experience this with me…” then there can be no argument; you love this person.

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You don’t miss the person you were with, you miss the person you were when you were with him or her.

When we reach back into our past and remember past lovers, the experiences we had together, the feelings we felt, the memories we created… we aren’t so much thinking about the person we were with but rather the person we were when we were with him or her.

People are very egocentric. It’s our nature. It shouldn’t be shunned but should be embraced, better understood and a bit better controlled.

We don’t remember the person we once loved because it isn’t possible. We never directly interact with people; we interact with our interpretations of them.

And our interpretations are very malleable. We reach back and make changes to the way we understand people and things, as well as how we feel about them.

Regardless of all of this, the fact remains that the things and people we believe matter most are the things and people who affected us in the biggest way.

This is something many people overlook: We remember the way people affected us and not the people themselves.

Sure, we remember the things they did that made us feel the way we felt, but in reality, we are honing in on the resulting emotions, not the causal actions.

With that being said, what we are really missing isn’t so much the individual as it is the reality that having that individual in our lives allowed for.

We miss the way we felt and the people we became when we were with him or her. We miss the people we were because they were better versions of the people we are now.

This may be almost entirely the result of nostalgia, but nevertheless, it is the reality we live in — regardless of whether or not we realize it or accept it.

People are capable of loving the same individual forever. We are capable of missing him or her and capable of understanding what we managed to lose or give up on. Yet, this is rarely the case.

More often than not, we are exhausting ourselves emotionally on individuals who don’t deserve our attention. Learn to differentiate, and your life will lead you in a much brighter direction