Do we have a choice in love? Or is love really our destiny that we need to realize and follow?

Throughout history, folklore, literature, and art have portrayed romantic love as a mysterious connection between two people. People could not explain this feeling through rational thinking, logic, or reason. It seems there is some kind of “magic of love.” Such a mysterious force of love is love destiny or fate.

What Is Destiny?

Beliefs in destiny have been part of the cultures of many societies for hundreds of years. The term came from the Latin verb “dēstināre” which means “to determine.” The word refers to a powerful supernatural force that determines what happens in people’s lives. It is an unknown cosmic or divine superpower.

The modern term “destiny” commonly describes a preset and unavoidable future occurrence, experience, or outcome. The word also refers to the powerful force that determines them. Instead of natural causation, people believe in supernatural causation, which is responsible for the events. People can understand natural causes and generally control them. However, people cannot comprehend supernatural causes, and they are beyond their control.

“Fate” is just another word that people use to describe the meaning of the word “destiny.”

The belief in destiny has endured throughout time and cultures. Destiny has often been personified and represented as a person, idol, or other natural thing with supernatural power. It was often a goddess who possessed the power to determine the course of events in life.

The psychological phenomenon of “hindsight bias” easily explains the belief in love’s destiny. In other words, this is the “knew-it-all-along” phenomenon when people overestimate how predictable past events were. This is a psychological illusion of predictability. Hindsight bias misrepresents memories of what has occurred.

What Is Love Destiny

A belief in fate and destined love implies that we have just one predestined real love with a single person for life. According to this belief, we have a prospective partner who is destined for us.

The men and women who are waiting for the strike of true love are faithfully waiting for such a “magical” moment. Romantic novels and movies beautifully depict this “special” moment when a mysterious spark strikes the heart.

When a man or a woman is already in the state of being in romantic love, they have a magical experience that they have waited for and loved this person their whole life.

• They feel a tacit sense of love destiny.
• They realize they haven’t chosen their beloved.
• They believe that unknown fortune, like fate, brought them this blessing of love.
• They suddenly experience this impulse of natural attraction that comes from some supernatural force.
• They call it “love destiny.”

“He believes it was his destiny to be there that day so that he could meet her—it was meant to be.”

According to the “love destiny” myth, men and women are predestined (or not predestined) to fall in love with someone. They do not choose to love someone; love destiny predetermines whom they fall in love with—once and for the rest of their lives. Romantic love ideals suggest that love is an unpredictable force and an unknown reality.

Romantic lovers deem that they have only one person in the world who is truly predestined for them. That person is their soul mate for life, with all their strengths and weaknesses. They believe it is better to “follow your heart than your head.” All these things are possible for true love, and it will find its way and endure forever.

Do You Believe or Not in Love Destiny?

Romantic ideals of predestined love have endured throughout the centuries. They were the sources of ultimate happiness, drama, and tragedy. Belief in destiny is a kind of “superstition.” Science often teaches us to abandon superstitions as scientifically invalid. Shall we do this in love?

However, such idealistic beliefs can be useful in life. Studies have found that romantic partners who believe in romantic destiny experience higher relationship satisfaction and have more stable relationships. Researchers found that it is true, at least for many Americans (e.g., Knee, 1998).

Yet “love destiny” can be a phenomenon that people believe in across cultures.