Sex is great and all, but true intimacy really has nothing to do with hooking up. You can get into bed with literally anyone if you want to—you can’t experience a real, genuine connection with just any guy. There are so many ways to be intimate with your boyfriend and none of them are about getting naked.
- Cook dinner together. While at first glance this might not seem super intimate, it’s a great way to connect with your BF and feel really close to him. Think about it: you’re going to spend a few hours together, between picking a recipe/meal and grocery shopping and chopping veggies and standing at the stove or oven together. The best part of cooking with the person that you love? Definitely stopping every so often (or every five seconds) to steal a kiss. See? So intimate.
- Talk about your family backgrounds. When you share stories about your childhood, from funny moments about how you grew up to any family drama or sadness, you might as well be standing naked in front of the person that you love. You’re showing them who you used to be and explaining how you got to where you are today and you’re asking them to accept you for you are today. If you can share this experience with your boyfriend, you’ll feel like you just reached a major relationship milestone.
- Share your most embarrassing memory. Everyone has one… and no one wants to talk about them. Â Nothing will make you feel more connected to the person that you love than sharing your most humiliating moments. By the end, you’ll both be laughing until you cry, and you’ll feel like you shared something special.
- Tell your partner why you love them (in detail). This might be old hat for you and your boyfriend, or it might feel a bit uncomfortable. It just depends on what kind of relationship you guys have. Some couples are super cute and love telling each other how they feel 24/7, and others like to be a lot less touchy-feely. If you and your BF tell each other exactly why you love each other and how many amazing qualities the other person has, you’re going to feel 100 times closer to each other. It’s honestly better than sex.
- Talk about why your last relationship ended. Oh, the dreaded exes talk. You don’t want to think about your guy being with anyone else… and it definitely freaks him out to think about you loving someone else, too. But no matter how awkward it might feel to revisit your romantic history, it’s totally necessary, and it’s a way to be intimate. You’ll learn a lot about your boyfriend and what he wants and needs from a relationship. And you’ll be showing him the same about yourself. There’s not much that is more intimate and raw than being honest about your failures and what you did wrong. By the end of the conversation, you’ll feel closer than ever before.
- Send adorable AF texts throughout the day. It would be awesome if you could see your boyfriend 24/7. Since you have jobs and lives and all that jazz, that’s not going to happen. So why not text each other and stay in touch the entire day? You might already be doing that, but you’re probably not texting each other sweet nothings and adorable messages. Once you try that for a day, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it before. It’s seriously intimate and feels pretty amazing.
- Spend the entire morning in bed. Nope, not doing that. Literally, lie in bed with your boyfriend. You can talk, you can not talk, it doesn’t really matter. You just want to feel like time doesn’t even exist and like you’ve been lying there together forever.
- Have a long conversation about the future. It’s total b.s. that guys don’t want to talk or even think about the future. Once you’re with the right person, you realize that it’s only the wrong ones who are afraid of taking the next step with you. A great way to work on your relationship intimacy is to talk about where you see things going. Maybe you guys want to find an apartment together within the next year, or you want to plan your first vacation as a couple. It’s super important to keep building your bond and feeling close to each other, no matter how long you’ve been together.
- Get comfy with silence. You know that it’s for real when you and your partner can hang out and not say anything at all. Becoming comfortable sitting in silence is seriously intimate. It’s like you can say all that you need to without any words at all, and it’s pretty romantic.
- Start a habit of sharing your feelings. Emotional intimacy is a thing and it’s the best muscle that you can build when you’re in a relationship. It’s super important to always tell your BF how you feel and to talk things out. Without that communication, you’re just going to hold things inside and, worse, start fights. Once you can get into the habit of sharing how you feel on a regular basis, you’ll both be intimate with each other every day, and you won’t even have to get into bed to feel that connection. Sounds pretty sweet.
