The Climate for Love - Intimacy I.Q.

This Intimacy Quiz is designed to help you and your partner assess attitudes, behaviors, and skills necessary to sustain an intimate relationship. As you review and discuss these questions, you and your partner may discover strengths and weaknesses. These questions can stimulate dialogue and help you to uncover areas in which further growth may be needed.

Dialoguing — expressing thoughts and feelings while responsively listening to what the other thinks and feels — is an essential skill in creating and maintaining healthy loving relationships.

Rate yourself and your partner on a scale of 1 to 4 :

1 = very seldom
2 = occasionally
3 = often
4 = nearly always

1. Do you set aside time to awaken and nurture your sensual nature?

2. How often do you experience your sixth sense, that of intuition?

3. Do you encourage your lover to awaken his/her sensuality in non-threatening ways?

4. If your lover expresses fears or concerns about his/her sensuality, can you address these fears without being judgmental?

5. How often do you separate sensuous touch from erotic touch?

6. Do you enjoy both giving and receiving sensual pleasure?

7. Do you seek new and creative ways to enliven the senses?

8. In creating a sensuous atmosphere, do you choose music and sounds that you and your lover associate with good times and good feelings?

9. Do you experiment with new flavors and aromas with your lover to expand the senses of taste and smell?

10. Do you sharpen your visual perception by paying close attention to detail?

Any score of 1 or 2 may be an indication of a breakdown in intimacy. Scores of 3 and 4 are signs of doing well at developing the Climate for Love. If you are sharing your scores with your partner and there is a discrepancy in the scores that you have given each other, use this as an opportunity to explore this area of intimate behavior. Dialoguing about your discrepancies sometimes can be helpful in seeing yourself more clearly.