Emotional intimacy is one of the most wonderful experiences we can have.

Nothing else really comes close to the experience of sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings with another, of being deeply seen and known, of sharing love, passion, creativity, laughter and joy.

The experience of intimacy fills our souls and takes away our loneliness.

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Why, then, would someone pull away from love and have a fear of intimacy?

It is not actually the intimacy itself that people fear. If people could be guaranteed that intimacy would continue to be a positive experience, they would have no fear of it.

What they fear is the possibility of getting hurt as a result of being intimate with another.

The two things underlying the fear of intimacy:

Many people have two major fears that may cause them to avoid intimacy:

1. The fear of rejection — of losing the other person.

and

2. The fear of engulfment — of being invaded, controlled, and losing oneself.

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Because many of us have learned to react to conflict with various controlling behaviors — from anger and blame to compliance, withdrawal, and resistance — every relationship presents us with these issues of rejection and engulfment.

If one person gets angry, the other may feel rejected or controlled and get angry back, give themselves up, withdraw or resist.

If one person shuts down, the other may feel rejected and become judgmental, which may trigger the other's fears of engulfment, and so on.

These protective circles exist in one form or another in most relationships.

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When the fears of rejection and engulfment become too great, a person may decide that it is just too painful to be in a relationship, so they pull away to avoid intimacy altogether.

Yet avoiding intimacy and vulnerability leads to loneliness and a lack of emotional and spiritual growth. Relationships offer us the most powerful arena for personal growth if we accept this challenge.

So what moves us beyond the fear of intimacy?

Healing the fear of intimacy:

The fear exists, not because of the experience itself, but because you don't know how to handle situations of being rejected or controlled.

The secret of moving beyond the fear of intimacy lies in developing a powerful loving adult part of you that learns how to not take rejection personally and learns to set appropriate limits against engulfment.

When you learn how to take personal responsibility for defining your own worth instead of making others' love and approval responsible for your feelings of worth, you will no longer take rejection personally.

This does not mean that you will ever like rejection — it means you will no longer be afraid of it and have a need to avoid it.

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When you learn how to speak up for yourself and not allow others to invade, smother, dominate and control you, you will no longer fear losing yourself in a relationship.

Many people, terrified of losing the other person, will give themselves up in the hope of controlling how the other person feels about them.

They believe that if they comply with another's demands, the other will love them. Yet losing oneself is terrifying, so many people stay out of relationships due to this fear.

If they were to learn to define their own worth and stand up for themselves, the fear would disappear.

When you deeply value yourself, you do not take rejection personally and become non-reactive to rejection. When you value yourself, you will not give yourself up to try to control another's feelings about you.

When you value yourself, you are willing to lose another rather than lose yourself.

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Dr. Margaret Paul holds a Ph.D. in psychology and is a relationship expert, noted public speaker, and workshop leader. She has appeared as an expert on radio and TV, including Oprah. She offers a free Inner Bonding e-course.