2025-0126u-1919 Austin, TX
Many people equate intimacy with sexual intimacy. When someone asks “Are you two intimate?”, the implication is sexual intimacy. But what about all of the other ways that two people can be intimate? I believe that thinking of intimacy in the broader sense can be useful in helping people form intimate connections with others. It can also be useful in measuring one’s intimacy with someone. If you do this with multiple people, you can perhaps find patterns in which you are resistant to a particular type of intimacy. You can also find types of intimacy that come more easily for you.
1. Emotional Intimacy – Feeling safe and free to express authentically. Includes witnessing and being present with each other’s emotions, vulnerabilities, triggers, and traumas.
2. Communication Intimacy – Trusting each other to share personal details, engage in meaningful conversations, and create a space of openness and understanding.
3. Physical Intimacy – Non-sexual physical touch, such as hugging, holding hands, cuddling, and other forms of platonic closeness.
4. Sensual Intimacy – Sensory connection through touch, smell, taste, and sound. Includes stroking, massaging, or exploring someone’s body through the senses.
5. Kinetic Intimacy – Movement-based connection, such as dancing, acrobatics, physical activities, or how you move and flow together in space.
6. Sexual Intimacy – Exchanging sexual energy and sexual touch, including vulnerability in sexual expression and willingness to explore your sexuality with each other.
7. Experiential Intimacy – Sharing time, interests, activities, and passions. Includes shared adventures, hobbies, and group/tribal experiences.
8. Intellectual Intimacy – Engaging in stimulating conversations, exploring ideas, and understanding how each other’s minds work. Includes shared curiosity and appreciation for intellect.
9. Knowing Intimacy – Deep understanding of each other’s likes, dislikes, values, histories, and personal nuances. Includes knowing someone’s preferences, memories, and life story.
10. Drugs/Alcohol Intimacy – Awareness of how substances affect each other, shared experiences involving substances, and understanding historical or current use, including addictions.
11. Energetic Intimacy – How it feels to be in each other’s presence. A willingness to be impacted by their energy, aura, or emotional states.
12. Cohabitation Intimacy – Comfort and willingness to be fully exposed as a human. Includes aspects such as nudity, bodily functions, and sharing a common home.
13. Temporal Intimacy – Understanding and witnessing someone’s cycles, changes, and routines over time. Includes knowing how they are during different times of day, seasons, or life phases.
14. Sleep Intimacy – Sharing the experience of sleep, including habits, preferences, and rhythms such as snoring, talking during sleep, or waking routines.
15. Creative Intimacy – Collaborating on creative projects, artistic endeavors, or shared expression through imagination and creation.
16. Humor Intimacy – Sharing laughter, inside jokes, and understanding each other’s sense of humor as a bonding experience.
17. Cultural Intimacy – Sharing and respecting each other’s cultural backgrounds, traditions, and experiences.
18. Financial Intimacy – Transparency, collaboration, and understanding regarding finances, money management, and shared goals.
19. Spiritual Intimacy – Exploring and sharing beliefs, practices, and spiritual growth. Includes witnessing someone’s spiritual journey and holding space for sacredness.
From a universe surfing point of view, each of these types of intimacies have an attractive force on the other types of intimacies. So, increasing one form of intimacy with someone brings you closer to a universe in which another form of intimacy is increased. If you and someone else are interested in tandem universe surfing to increased intimacy, pick one of these types that most resonates with both of you and dive in!
If you like this post, you might also like one of the most viewed post I have written.
surfing the universe 