Intimacy & Love, Are They The Same?

[Saarai]

I'm someone who considers themselves one of the few people, at least that I can think of, who doesn't really believe in or care for the concept of love. But, I do believe in intimacy, and not just between people in a relationship.

A conversation I was having prompted me to ask if anyone believes if love and intimacy go hand in hand, or if they aren't exclusive to each other?

Do you need to be in a relationship with someone to be intimate with them? Can you love someone without being intimate, as might be the case with very close friends?

And, lastly, what is intimacy to you?

 

[Focusedheart]

That is a question that will have many different answers because all those words will mean something different to each person. With that said, my late husband taught me what it was to love deeply. A caring for someone on a level that is fulling in ways that can't be expressed. Being there for one another and supporting each other.

The intimacy for us wasn't just part of the physical aspect but about the mind and soul. Getting to know the deepest parts of a person and understanding and accepting those parts. To know someone so well that you often know what they are going to do or how they are gonna react. That closeness that once more can be hard to describe at times.

To answer the question about if love and intimacy can be together or apart. That depends on the relationship it seems or at least that is what I have found. I've had relationships in the past where I loved them but it was only when I met my husband that I truly felt what love really was and the real difference between being in love and just loving someone. So they can go together and they can be separate because there are all kinds of love and all kinds of forms of intimacy.

For instance you can have intimacy with a friend, as in a best friend who knows you so well and you share your deepest thoughts with.

Those are my thoughts on it. Sorry for my answer being a little out of wack lol.

 

[Nilum]

Intimacy and Love are directly linked to each other at the hip.

Love
noun
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

Intimacy
noun, plural intimacies.
1. the state of being intimate.
2. a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group.
3. a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc.

To be intimate is to be loving, and to be loving is to be intimate. It's just like how a sound can describe a noise, and a noise can describe a sound--it's a cyclical definition, there's several of them in the English language. If you care about someone, and want to help them through troubles in their life, and feel as though your life is better with them than without them--you love them. There's different variations of love--familial, romantic, sexual, friendly, et cetera. You can also feel love for more than just a person, you can feel love for an idea, or a concept, or a piece of property. Passion is related to love, and passion is what convinces artists and writers to pour in hundreds of hours of work to create a non-real thing. Love is linked to patriotism, love is linked to idealism, love of mankind is linked to optimism, and so on. Love is an integral human emotion, you need it to give yourself value and meaning... In the things that you do, in the people that you surround yourself with, and ultimately for yourself. A life without love is a life devoid of warmth. It's an eternal winter for the soul, and that's not sustainable in the long term, it'll make you squirrely.

We're social animals. By that nature we need people in our lives to love, and be loved by. In doing so, we're intimate. Basically: Love is a description of a feeling, and intimacy is a description of acting on that feeling. An intimate act is inherently one of love, one of compassion, one of gentleness. It's one of the most ideal aspects of humanity, one of our best qualities. You cannot separate one from the other without making it false, or filled with sorrow.

If you love someone, you will be intimate with them. If you're intimate toward someone, you're expressing a loving and gentle and compassionate act. They're tied together, like many aspects of being human are. It's a wonderful thing, really.

 

[Imperatus Rex]

Although what I am going to say has likely been said already, they aren't the same thing. Related? Maybe. Love is a concept of being obsessed or specifically attracted to a person, and having extra empathy towards them usually. Intimacy is being close and personal. For example, best friends can be intimate. They know everything about each other, and are open. Physical intimacy is also not love-bound. Two friends might even cuddle or hug, yet they don't have romantic intentions per se, regardless of them being close and trusting. Platonic is the key word I suppose. Platonic intimacy is possible.