I am trying to conceptualize love in a way that is different than what we have all been programmed to believe it is, which is often in the form of romantic or lustful love.

If we understand love as the act and ongoing effort to minimize suffering, we remove some of the faulty perceptions of it, which is that it's inevitably tied to lust, romance, or in general the mating process. We can see that it can be universally applied to all beings without being confined to gender, age, close relations, and other artificial classes.

So if you love someone, you'll make an effort to reduce their suffering. This is easy to see when applied to a parent and their children. It's harder to see when you apply it to complete strangers. I think there's less true love in today's relationships because each individual is in it more for themselves, and they're not thinking about how to love the other person.

One goal is to love yourself, and to continue to reduce your own suffering. Get rid of things that continue to add harm to yourself like addictions, unhealthy diets, and unhealthy behaviors. Loving yourself is not about searching for desires to satisfy, but to reduce the need to desire those things in the first place. So try to show yourself love every day!