Lumifer comments on Open thread, Sep. 28 - Oct. 4, 2015 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MrMind 28 September 2015 07:13AM

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Comment author: beberly37 28 September 2015 05:24:26PM *  4 points [-]

This is an open question about a brain-hack.

I don't believe the concept of love languages is big on LW, but searching the forum leads to a few mentions of them. It not exactly a data-driven concept, but anecdotally, spending time and acts of service are effective ways to make me feel loved, while gifts and compliments are not (they actually usually make me feel uncomfortable).

The primary concept of the love languages book is to change the way you show love from what you prefer to what your partner prefers (ie if your main language is touch and you are always snuggling with your spouse, but their main language is services, they will feel unloved while you snuggle with them instead of doing the dishes, so you should make an effort to do the dishes instead of snuggling on the couch)

My question is, has anyone experienced or developed (or will develop, prompted by this comment) a method to change my love language priorities so I can feel more loved given current circumstances?

The small back story is; as a result of adding two kids and a real job and an alone-time-hungry-stay-at-home-mom wife time is very limited, which means quality time is at a premium, so I'm feeling unloved. It would be preferable to make more time exist, but that's unlikely, so I would like hack my brain to make me feel loved in other ways. Any ideas?

edited to add italics for clarity

edited 10/7/2015 to add cautionary update: It has been commented that there may be side effect to brain hacking. Two that almost immediately come up and are worth mentioning because they can be in direct opposition to the goal of feeling more loved are:

Nightly listing of all instances of signals of love results in real-time noticing of them (which is a plus, the "I can write about this later!" feeling), but this is coupled with real-time noticing of missed opportunities to show love (Why didn't she make me tea?)

There is a tendency (for me) to compare/notice list lengths from day to day. ie There are only 5 today and 15 yesterday [trombone sound]

Comment author: Lumifer 28 September 2015 05:41:45PM 1 point [-]

a method to change my love language priorities?

Do you want to change what makes you feel happy and loved?

I suspect a lot of it gets baked in during childhood and attempts to change that would involve fairly major surgery on your psyche.

Comment author: Dagon 29 September 2015 03:41:04PM 2 points [-]

IMO, fairly major surgery on one's psyche is an important part of optimizing one's life. You can't change everything all at once, but a whole lot of attitudes and aliefs can be reprogrammed over time.

For this one, gratitude journal is a good recommendation. Also, the same advice as other habit-changing: learn to notice when your feelings don't match your beliefs, and backtrack to the causes. Repeated self-talk (both affirmations and framing reminders) has a pretty strong effect on me, but others report mixed success.

Comment author: Lumifer 29 September 2015 05:31:59PM 0 points [-]

IMO, fairly major surgery on one's psyche is an important part of optimizing one's life.

Just like any major surgery, it's a risk. You might benefit, or you might screw yourself up in appropriately major ways.

Comment author: beberly37 28 September 2015 07:09:43PM 0 points [-]

Do you want to change what makes you feel happy and loved?

Yes. I edited the post for clarity.