Emotional intimacy plays one of the biggest roles in relationships. It is essential to creating a strong bond between partners. This type of closeness allows the exchange of support and vulnerability.
When two people are emotionally close, they are able to share their deepest feelings and fears with each other. This builds a strong emotional connection.
Strong connection
Emotional intimacy is essential to creating stable relationships. Moreover, couples who have a deep emotional bond are often more likely to have a good physical relationship.
Also, people communicate with each other more, since mutual understanding is developed. All of these factors help to become comfortable with each other, which makes relationships more enjoyable.
Emotional closeness leads to greater intimacy on physical and spiritual levels. Emotional, physical, and spiritual types of intimacy are three most important components for a healthy relationship.
Physical intimacy is touchy-feely stuff like hugging, kissing, and making love. Achieving physical intimacy in your relationship means more than your bedroom affairs.
Believe it or not, according to many studies, kissing is much more intimate than sex. There is that unexplainable connection while kissing.
Spiritual intimacy is the sense of oneness you feel with your partner when you share your values and beliefs. This involves building an emotional connection based on your religious beliefs and practicing them together.
Simple activities such as going to places of worship together or reading religious doctrines to each other. Practicing your faith with your partner help to strengthen your bond.
All these types are essential in a romantic relationship. It allows couples to feel close to one another.
Knowing The Signs Of Emotional Intimacy
Understanding why you and your partner are connected is vitally important to ensure your relationship thrives.
If you want to understand whether you show signs of close emotional intimacy, please, check the following.
Some of the signs that suggest you have a real connection with your partner include:
1. You frequently communicate with one another throughout the day. Whether it’s through text, phone calls, or video chats, you make sure to touch base often.
2. You feel comfortable sharing your thoughts and feelings with one another. You know that you can express yourselves without judgment or fear of reprisal.
3. You share similar values and goals. This creates a sense of unity between you and helps solidify your bond.
4. You support one another through thick and thin. No matter what life throws your way, you know you can rely on each other.
5. You enjoy spending time together, both in-person and virtually. Even when you’re not physically together, you find ways to connect and keep the spark alive.
6. You have a strong physical connection. This doesn’t necessarily mean sex, but rather a general sense of closeness and comfortableness with one another.
7. You frequently make plans for the future together. Whether it’s discussing your retirement goals or planning a trip 6 months down the road, you’re always thinking ahead as a team.
9. You’re able to be yourself around one another. There’s no need to put up a façade or act differently than you normally would.
10. You frequently say “I love you” and mean it. These words are not said lightly, but rather come from a place of deep affection and connection.
If you can relate to most of these signs, it’s likely that you have a connection with your partner. This is a good thing! Nurturing this type of intimacy is vital to keeping your relationship strong and healthy.
If you cannot relate to most of these signs, but do want to achieve this level of intimacy, not a problem! There are many ways to improve and build emotional closeness.
Building Emotional Intimacy in a Relationship
To be emotionally intimate is to feel a sense of safety and security in the partnership.
Recognizing that there is a problem in the relationship is the first step toward restoring the broken pieces.
Building a healthy relationship is a lot of work. Couples need to have patience and be willing to accommodate each other during the entire process.
Emotional intimacy is more than just physical touch and sex. It encompasses both verbal and non-verbal communication.
Factors Affecting Emotional Closeness
Some of these factors include the following:
Exposure To Abuse and Violence
If one or both partners are victims of abuse and violence, either physically or emotionally. It might cause a strain on the relationship.
This person has gone through trauma, and the effect made them want to build a defense system against a future occurrence. This might make it less likely for them to open up to intimacy.
Mental Health Status
People suffering from depression, anxiety, and some forms of personality disorders have difficulty getting emotionally close to people.
In some cases, your partner may have a difficult time becoming emotionally intimate because they are not used to experiencing those feelings.
Before you get judgmental or even upset that there is no connection between you two. Please, check all the odds of your partner having mental problems.
Mixed Priorities
With every day life, couples can get so busy they stop making time for each other and it can harm the relationship. Responsibilities in the workplace can endanger the state of your relationship.
When partners are unable to prioritize each other, it makes them feel unwanted, unacknowledged, and one-sided.
Broken Trust
Trust can be broken in a relationship when there is dishonesty and disloyalty. Mending the broken trust will require forgiveness and vulnerability, which the affected partner might fail to give.
Relationship-PTSD
This arises from the experiences of previous relationships. Partners who have gone through a relationship that left them broken might be skeptical about showing vulnerability.
They are heartbroken. This will affect their ability to feel and exercise vulnerability to create intimacy.
Stop Communicating
Couples stop talking about their hopes and dreams. Instead, focus on their day-to-day lives. As a result, they start to feel like roommates or business partners instead of emotional partners.
How To Improve Emotional Closeness
The ability to build a lasting relationship heavily relies on the willingness of the parties involved to make a meaningful connection.
A relationship cannot survive without intimacy. It will create grounds for mistrust in your partnership. Also, making it difficult to accommodate each other. Working on your intimacy means taking time and being patient with each other.
Make time for Each Other
If you want to keep intimacy alive in your relationship, it’s important to make time for each other. Schedule regular date nights, even if it’s just once a month. Make sure you’re both on the same page about your relationship goals. And most importantly, keep communicating!
Activities as a Couple
Another way to improve your connection is to spend time together doing activities that you both enjoy. This can help you feel closer to each other and build a stronger bond.
It’s also important to make sure that you’re both taking care of yourselves emotionally and mentally. This means taking care of your own needs and not always putting your partner’s needs first.
If you’re both happy and healthy individuals, it will be easier to maintain a strong connection.
Be a Listener
Listen to what your partner has to say. Sometimes, all your partner wants is an impartial person that will listen to them and validate their feelings or help them come to a decision. Make an effort to really listen to what they have to say, without interrupting or becoming defensive A healthy relationship constitutes healthy communication too.
Communicate Your Feelings
If you are having difficulty communicating your feelings, try starting your sentences with the words ‘I feel….’
Talk to your partner about what you’re feeling, both positive and negative. Try to be open and understanding even if you don’t agree with everything they’re saying.
Complement Each Other
A simple compliment can actually go a long way in making them feel appreciated and loved. Take the time to show your partner how much you care about them. Make an effort to do things that will make them happy. Write a short love poem. These small gestures can make a big difference in your relationship.
Whether it’s by words or actions, making your partner feel valued is one way of strengthening your emotional connection. Tell them they looked good today, the food was amazing, or I’m glad you made the time for me today because lunch was wonderful.
Initiate Physical Intimacy
Anyone of you in the relationship has the ability to initiate physical intimacy. Don’t just leave all the work to one person. Switch it up for that extra spice that you’ve been looking for.
Have Difficult Conversations
This will require both of you to step out of your comfort zones. You need to identify and communicate with each other about the problems you have encountered in the relationship and offer solutions.
Have Boundaries
Relationships are bound to experience conflict and that’s ok. If your partner is willing to make it work, do everything possible to ensure it does. Otherwise, respect their wishes. Maybe it is time you focused on your personal growth.
Support
One of the most important aspects of emotional intimacy is feeling like you can rely on your partner for support. This doesn’t mean that your partner needs to be your emotional crutch. It does mean they should be someone you feel comfortable turning to when you’re experiencing difficulties.
Don’t be afraid to ask for emotional support from your partner when you need it. In strong relationships, it is key to the overall happiness and stability of the partnership.
Conclusion
If you have feelings for each other and are willing to kindly work on your relationship, a beautiful and successful union will last for a very long time.
