8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

by Jay Shetty

“What is the difference between like and love?” asks a student. The teacher responds, “When you like a flower, you pluck it. When you love a flower, you water it daily.” This frequently cited dialogue illustrates one of my favorite ideas about love. We are attracted to beauty—we long for it—and want it for our own. This is the flower that we pluck and enjoy. But attraction, like a cut flower, eventually withers, and we discard it. When attraction develops into love, it requires more care. When we want to keep a flower alive, we don’t cut it and put it in a vase. We give it sunlight, soil, and water. And it’s only when you care for a flower over time, doing your best to keep it alive, that you fully experience its beauty—the freshness, the color, the scent, the bloom. You notice the delicate detail on each petal. You watch it respond to the seasons. You find joy and satisfaction when a new bud appears and feel a thrill when it blossoms. We are drawn to love as we are drawn to a flower—first by its beauty and allure—but the only way we can keep it alive is through consistent care and attention. Love is a daily effort. I want to develop the habit of love with you in this book. I’ll introduce you to practices, mindsets, and tools that will help you love in a way that brings daily rewards, season after season. It has been said that the greatest pursuit of human life is to love and to be loved. We believe in love—it’s in our nature to be drawn to love stories, to long for one of...