Should you ever tell a woman that you love them (even if you actually do)? From my understanding of a woman's nature, as soon as you do so and actually mean it, they begin to lose respect for you because they think that you have settled for them and they are the best you can do.
Divorced from 12 year marriage
In the year since my divorce, have dated a bunch of women
All exhibited the same emotional and hypergamous instincts
I purposefully refrain from letting my gf know how great I think she is. I purposefully refrain from validating her or comforting her about her insecurities. From where I stand, by keeping her emotionally insecure, she continues to feel a sense of excitement and desire for me. It's one big stupid fucking game that I hate playing but I recognize as a necessity. I remain stoic, and never talk about my emotions or how I feel about her. I never talk about what other people are doing, or what we've done in the past. I focus exclusively on my goals and what I'm doing that day. To keep things interesting, I take her out to do fun exciting things. I don't ask her what she wants to do, I just tell her what we're doing.
To this day, she still believes that she likes me more than I like her. She is afraid to tell me she loves me because she thinks I won't reciprocate.