Intimacy is an enduring state of being within a relationship whereby you and your partner together create the conditions through which deep personal connection can grow. These conditions include trust, openness, vulnerability, safety, empathy and honesty.
By contrast, feelings – happy, sad, angry, afraid, hopeful, helpless, calm, proud, disappointed – are transient states that exist independently within you rather than between you and your partner.
And while intimacy is not a feeling, it does support the mutual expression of feelings, and provides the foundation for enduring connection in all of your personal relationships.