Whether you’re looking for a relationship, friends with benefits, or want to protect your heart completely, it’s important to know what can and can’t make you catch feelings for another person. Usually, we are told to only have sex with a person we truly care about, as intercourse can trigger emotions, especially in females, similar to love, but there are a few other intimate acts which might just pull your heart strings.
- Grocery Shopping.
Although the idea of your romantic interest pushing a grocery cart through the store may give some the ick, I beg to differ. Being naked with someone is one thing, but picking out your favorite lunch meat or browsing the milk aisle with any non-platonic partner might just be the most intimate thing you can do together. Nothing screams emotional attachment like meal planning together.
- Smoking Weed.
As an HCCU contributing writer, I couldn’t just forget about the classic Colorado date of sharing a joint. Getting high with someone peels back a layer of vulnerability, and no one can escape romantic feelings when your mind is woozy and an attractive person is sitting next to you. Bonus points if you smoke outside and have to oh-so-casually lean into them to pass the joint. Turning puff-puff-pass into puff-puff-fall in love.
- Showering.
Pretty similar to physical affection, showering with a romantic partner is extremely private, intimate, and inherently sexual. Even if you don’t *do the deed* under the flowing jets, standing in a tightly enclosed space with someone while butt naked might just make you start wedding ring shopping. Some might argue that not having sex in the shower is a greater bonding experience than actually having sex.
- Spending the Night.
Nothing quite says “I love you” like falling asleep with a beautiful person in your arms. Whether it’s post-sex, pre-sex, or “platonic” (I don’t believe you can platonically cuddle with anyone), laying next to another person under a warm blanket is bound to make you catch feelings. For those with a physical touch love language: be warned.
- Holding Hands (Especially With the Thumb Thing).
Last but not least, holding hands is the ultimate way to fall for someone. Obviously not as intimate as sex or showering together, or even going grocery shopping, holding hands is just innocent enough to be appropriate but hints at something greater and stirs up lots of emotions. Don’t even get me started on how I feel when a partner slightly strokes their thumb against my hand or circles their finger around my wrist — absolute emotional shivers all through my body (and down to my genitals).
Although our mothers might disagree, there are some things more intimate than sex. I, for one, would rather wait to go grocery shopping until marriage than remain abstinent. So whether you’re looking for a fuck buddy, or want to be engaged by the time you graduate, read this information wisely; sex is not the only thing which can make you simp.