MEDIA PRESS KIT
IS THAT WHAT LOVE IS SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE?
Understanding Love, Why We Stay, and the Reasons We Choose Each Other
By Gerald Crawford
BOOK OVERVIEW
The question that could change the way you understand love.
What is love supposed to feel like?
Is it butterflies and excitement?
Is it passion and desire?
Is it security?
Is it peace?
Is it being chosen?
Is it being understood?
Is it staying when things become difficult?
Or have we been taught to confuse love with intensity, attachment, fear, loneliness or the fear of losing someone?
Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like? takes the reader on a journey through the complexity of human love and relationships.
Rather than giving the reader a simple definition of love, Gerald Crawford invites us to examine the experiences, expectations, wounds and choices that shape the way we love.
The book asks us to look beyond romantic fantasy and discover something deeper:
What does healthy, mature and conscious love actually feel like?
THE BOOK’S CENTRAL QUESTION
The journey begins with a question:
“Is that what love is supposed to feel like?”
It is a question many people have asked themselves privately.
Sometimes it appears during an argument.
Sometimes in silence.
Sometimes when the relationship no longer feels like the relationship we imagined.
And sometimes it appears when everything seems to be going well, but something inside us still wonders whether what we are experiencing is actually love.
The book does not rush to provide an answer.
Instead, it asks the reader to become curious about love.
To examine what we were taught.
What we experienced.
What we expect.
What we fear.
Why we stay.
And what we are actually choosing.
WHAT THE BOOK EXPLORES
The book takes readers through a broad exploration of intimate relationships.
The Question
What have we been taught to believe love should feel like?
What Love Feels Like
Can love be safe, secure and emotionally healthy?
The Love We Learned
How do childhood experiences and our earliest understanding of love influence our adult relationships?
Why We Stay
Why do people remain in relationships?
Is it love?
Hope?
History?
Children?
Fear?
Comfort?
Guilt?
Loneliness?
Or because there is genuinely something worth building?
The Whole Person
Can we love somebody while seeing their imperfections, wounds, fears, dreams and difficult parts?
When Love Is Tested
What happens to love during conflict, disappointment, betrayal, broken trust, anger and hurt?
The Love We Choose
Can love become a conscious choice rather than simply an emotion?
Loving Yourself
What happens when we lose ourselves inside a relationship?
And why is self-respect essential to healthy love?
What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like
Should love feel like home?
Freedom?
Truth?
Peace?
Being chosen?
Being known?
Becoming?
The Reasons We Stay
Ultimately, why do we choose each other?
And what makes staying an act of love rather than an act of fear?
THE BIG IDEA
One of the book’s deepest ideas is that intensity is not necessarily intimacy.
Fear can feel intense.
Jealousy can feel intense.
Attachment can feel intense.
Loneliness can feel intense.
The fear of losing someone can feel incredibly powerful.
But powerful emotion does not automatically mean healthy love.
The book encourages readers to look instead at the patterns within a relationship:
Can we tell the truth?
Can we feel safe?
Can we say no?
Can we make mistakes and repair them?
Can we grow?
Can we remain ourselves?
Can we choose each other freely?
These questions become a more meaningful way of understanding love than simply asking whether the relationship feels exciting.
WHY THIS BOOK IS IMPORTANT
Many people have been taught to recognise love through romance, chemistry and emotional intensity.
But relationships eventually move beyond the first excitement.
Real life arrives.
Differences emerge.
People become vulnerable.
Wounds are exposed.
Expectations are challenged.
Conflict happens.
Trust can be tested.
And eventually we discover that loving somebody is not the same as loving the image we created of them.
This book addresses that transition.
It explores the movement from:
attraction to understanding
intensity to intimacy
fantasy to reality
reaction to choice
dependence to healthy connection
fear to freedom
“I need you” to “I choose you.”
THE BOOK’S VIEW OF STAYING
A central theme of the book is that staying is not automatically proof of love.
People stay for many different reasons.
Some stay because they love.
Some stay because they hope things will change.
Some stay because of history.
Some stay because of children.
Some stay because they are comfortable.
Some stay because they are afraid of being alone.
Some stay because leaving feels impossible.
And sometimes people stay because, after seeing the relationship honestly, they still believe there is something meaningful worth protecting and building.
The important question therefore becomes:
“Why am I choosing to remain?”
The book encourages readers to distinguish between staying because something is difficult and staying because something is destructive.
Love can survive difficulty.
But love should never be used to justify ongoing harm.
SEEING THE WHOLE PERSON
Another central theme is the movement from loving an ideal to seeing a human being.
At the beginning of a relationship, we often see fragments:
A smile.
A voice.
A sense of humour.
Kindness.
Beauty.
Confidence.
As time passes, we discover the rest.
The fears.
The insecurities.
The wounds.
The habits.
The weaknesses.
The dreams.
The things we don’t understand.
This is where mature love begins.
The person stops being an idea and becomes a human being.
The book argues that deep love does not require us to pretend imperfections do not exist.
Instead, it asks us to see the whole person without reducing them to their worst moments.
Understanding is not excusing.
Acceptance is not surrender.
Forgiveness is not forgetting.
And loving someone does not mean abandoning our own dignity, boundaries or identity.
WHAT HEALTHY LOVE SHOULD FEEL LIKE
The book ultimately explores a different way of recognising love.
Healthy love should create room for:
Safety
Freedom
Truth
Peace
Being chosen
Being known
Becoming
Individuality
Choice
And, ultimately:
Love should feel like love.
Not perfection.
Not constant excitement.
Not possession.
Not fear.
Not control.
But something real enough to survive ordinary life while allowing two people to remain themselves and continue growing together.
WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?
Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like? is for anyone who has ever questioned a relationship.
It is for:
- People who are falling in love
- People who have been in love for years
- Married couples
- People considering commitment
- People experiencing relationship difficulties
- People recovering from heartbreak
- People questioning whether they should stay
- People wondering whether they should leave
- People trying to understand their patterns in relationships
- People wanting to understand themselves more deeply
- Anyone who has ever asked, “Is this really love?”
It is not simply a book about staying.
It is a book about understanding.
THE AUTHOR
GERALD CRAWFORD
Gerald Crawford is an author, educator, counsellor, healer and public speaker whose work focuses on human behaviour, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, relationships, healing and personal transformation.
His writing explores the inner experiences that influence the way people think, feel, behave and relate to one another.
In Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like?, Crawford turns his attention to one of the most universal human experiences: love.
His approach is reflective rather than prescriptive.
He does not simply tell readers whether to stay or leave.
Instead, he encourages them to ask better questions, become more self-aware and understand the difference between love, fear, attachment, dependency, commitment and conscious choice.
MEDIA TALKING POINTS
Gerald Crawford can speak about:
Love and relationships
What healthy love actually looks and feels like.
Why people stay
The emotional reasons behind staying in relationships.
Love versus attachment
Why needing someone is not necessarily the same as choosing them.
Intensity versus intimacy
Why powerful emotions are not always evidence of healthy love.
Childhood and adult relationships
How our earliest experiences can influence the way we love.
Self-love and relationships
Why losing yourself in a relationship is not the same as intimacy.
Forgiveness
Why forgiveness does not mean forgetting or excusing.
Boundaries
Why healthy boundaries can strengthen rather than destroy relationships.
Conflict
What relationships reveal when people are angry, hurt or disappointed.
Betrayal and broken trust
What happens when the foundations of a relationship are tested.
Choosing each other
Why mature love involves repeated conscious choices.
Knowing when to stay
How to distinguish difficulty from destruction.
Knowing when to let go
Why loving someone does not always mean remaining with them.
POSSIBLE MEDIA INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- What inspired you to ask, “Is that what love is supposed to feel like?”
- What do you believe people misunderstand most about love?
- Why do people sometimes confuse intensity with intimacy?
- Why do we stay in relationships that are difficult?
- When does staying become an act of love, and when does it become an act of fear?
- Can you love somebody deeply and still choose to leave?
- What role does childhood play in how we love as adults?
- What does healthy love actually feel like?
- Why is loving yourself important within a relationship?
- What is the one question you want every reader to ask themselves after reading this book?
THE AUTHOR’S KEY MESSAGE
Love is not simply about how strongly we feel.
It is also about how we behave.
How we treat one another.
How safe we feel.
Whether we can speak the truth.
Whether we can remain ourselves.
Whether we can repair what has been broken.
Whether we can grow.
And whether, after seeing each other clearly, we can still freely choose one another.
30-SECOND RADIO PITCH
“Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like? is a book about a question almost everyone in a relationship has asked at some point. Gerald Crawford explores what love really feels like, why people stay, how our childhood experiences influence the way we love, and how we can distinguish love from fear, attachment and emotional intensity. Ultimately, the book asks us to look at love differently—not as perfection, but as truth, safety, freedom, growth and conscious choice.”
60-SECOND RADIO PITCH
“We all have an idea of what love is supposed to feel like. We think it should be exciting, passionate, overwhelming and certain. But what happens when real life enters the relationship? What happens when we disagree, get hurt, lose trust or discover each other’s imperfections? Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like? by Gerald Crawford explores those questions honestly. It examines why we stay, what we learned about love as children, how we respond when love is tested, why self-respect matters, and what healthy love should actually feel like. The book doesn’t simply tell people to stay or leave. It asks us to understand why we are choosing to remain—and whether what we are experiencing is genuinely love.”
POSSIBLE HEADLINES FOR MEDIA
Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like?
The Question Every Relationship Eventually Asks
What Does Healthy Love Actually Feel Like?
Why Do We Stay When Love Becomes Difficult?
Is It Love—or Simply Intensity?
When Staying Is Love—and When It Is Fear
Beyond Butterflies: Understanding Real Love
Can You Love Someone and Still Leave?
Seeing the Whole Person: What Mature Love Really Means
SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION FOR MEDIA
Is That What Love Is Supposed to Feel Like? explores the complexity of love, relationships and the choices we make within them. Gerald Crawford examines what we learned about love, why we stay, how relationships are tested, what healthy love should feel like and what happens when we finally see another person—and ourselves—clearly.
At its heart, the book asks a deceptively simple question:
Is this what love is supposed to feel like?
THE FINAL QUESTION
After everything we have learned about love, perhaps the most important question is no longer:
“Do I love this person?”
Perhaps it is:
“When I see this person clearly, and when they see me clearly, can we still choose each other freely?”
That is where the journey of this book ultimately leads.
Not to perfect love.
But to real love.
Love that can hold truth and tenderness.
Freedom and commitment.
Individuality and connection.
Imperfection and acceptance.
Difficulty and growth.
And the possibility of choosing each other—not because we have to, but because we genuinely want to.
MEDIA CONTACT
Gerald Crawford
Author | Public Speaker | Educator | Counsellor | Healer
For interviews, radio, television, podcasts, book reviews, articles, speaking engagements and media features, please contact Gerald Crawford through his official channels.
Website: GeraldCrawford.co.za
MEDIA ASSETS
Available media materials can include:
- Book cover
- Author photograph
- Author biography
- Book synopsis
- Media press kit
- Interview questions
- Interview answers
- Promotional quotations
- Social media content
- Book extracts
- Speaking topics
IS THAT WHAT LOVE IS SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE?
Understanding Love, Why We Stay, and the Reasons We Choose Each Other
By Gerald Crawford
A book that doesn’t simply tell you what love is.
It asks you to discover it for yourself.
See The Download Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12PoBk5deNXxjCRTQu5uyKENfh3J1RbN2/view?usp=sharing
