Simon Talks All About Love

Heya. Recently, I’ve been re-reading Bell Hooks’ “All About Love,” for the third time, and I really wanted to talk about it. This book was a huge comfort to me when I found it a couple of years ago, in my darkest moments, and has inspired a major change in how I lived my life from then on out. The way musicians throw themselves into their music, athletes throw themselves into their sport, how doctors spend years studying before they get into an office, I took up the new life direction of learning all about love, and making love my guiding ethos. All About Love provided me with an understanding of what love is, and also, very importantly, a huge understanding of what love ISN’T. I’ve taken this all with me now in my relationships with my friends, family, strangers, romantic partners, and - especially - myself. I’m going to talk all about it in this video.

In Part 2 of the video on ‪@SimonsBookClub‬ I’m going to get more into how love guides me in my different understandings of relationships. I’ll talk briefly about my experience with polyamory, though I only scratch the surface here, and can get a lot more in depth about it - like I do with the people who ask me about polyamory - in another video. Check out Part 2 here:
☞    • All About Love Part 2: Polyamory and Self-...  

I mention the Discord in this video and the next. There’s a really nice community of people there who know how to hold space, who know how to communicate with non-violence. We talk a lot about mental health, polyamory, relationship dynamics, mindfulness, and lots of cool stuff. Come join us
☞   / discord  

Self-compassion was very healing for me, and it’s something I practice daily. If the idea of self-compassion is something you’re curious about, check out these classes:
☞ https://centerformsc.org

Here’s that psychology of relationships class I mentioned as well. It was a great class, all online, and it helped me learn a lot about myself and my patterns. And the instructor was really knowledgeable as well. Highly recommended.
☞ https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-co...

0:00 On Being Creative
0:52 Intro to “All About Love”
1:26 Reading this Book After Divorce
2:12 Relating with Bell Hooks
3:19 Practicing the Art of Loving
3:45 Where do We Learn About Love?
4:46 A New Framework for Love
5:42 Thinking of Love as an Artform
6:22 Fromm’s “Art of Loving”
8:08 How I Trained in Love
11:12 Being in Love Again
12:05 How Our Families Teach us Love
14:55 “Falling” in Love Sucks
15:33 Romantic Love is Dangerous
17:05 “Standing” and “Walking” in Love
18:19 New Definitions of Love
20:35 What’s Missing in Love
22:05 Greed and Possession in Love
23:09 Shopping for Love
25:42 The Economics of Love
26:52 Summary of Love
28:09 Conclusion

#love #relationship #books