Intimacy requires a level of connection and oneness that is only possible when a person is able to be truly vulnerable. So what does it mean to be vulnerable?

Well, Google’s dictionary defines it as “susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm.”

That means in order for you to receive intimacy, one must lower your guard and invite someone in, trusting that they won’t hurt you, even though they can.

It’s a tricky situation, but there’s no other way. And as Saint shows us, being intimate isn’t the hard part, it’s allowing yourself to be vulnerable to receive the intimacy of others that requires bravery.

When I hear the word “intimacy,” I think of skin. That’s all I see. If you actually pay attention to it, there’s more than just skin, though. It’s what’s behind the skin: emotions.  The intimacy that most people think about when they hear the word is being intimate with your significant other. I have experienced that. I know how to take care of others–how to nurture and love. But I have a hard time receiving or accepting it from others.

I’m a very big fan of the little things: making sure a person eats, they feel okay, and if they aren’t, trying to figure out why and what you can do to make them not feel that way. How you can make them feel happy. That’s a way of caring and loving someone. But when I thinking of how it feels to receive intimacy, it’s a lot more complicated.

Intimacy is difficult because you’re trying to allow yourself to be fully loved by a stranger–someone that isn’t you…..[and] you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, where you’re going, or how you’re going to get there.

I think it’s very similar to my relationship with my mother. She isn’t very affectionate or anything. When she tries to be affectionate, it takes me off guard. It feels weird. But at the same time, I feel it is really important because if you don’t share intimacy, there’s this invisible wall between you and the other person. And if you don’t break it, there can be no connection. But it’s hard to break down that wall, whether it is you or the person you love trying to do it.

At the end of the day, I think intimacy is difficult because you’re trying to allow yourself to be fully loved by a stranger–someone that isn’t you. It’s something that is not taught, shown, or explained. I feel like it is something that you learn through experience, and that’s why it is hard. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, where you’re going, or how you’re going to get there.