Can sex be meaningful when it’s casual? When it’s playful and a bit dirty? When you’re asking for reassurance? And can trying very hard to have “conscious sex” become yet another performance?
I’m joined by Marika Smith, Swedish sex educator, coach, writer, and host of 'Sex på riktigt'. We started with the question of what makes sex meaningful and kept finding new ways to complicate our answers.
Marika talks about people who have explored a lot, then find they need to step back and ask what they actually want now. We talk about the difference between sex that feels meaningful and sex we’re using to achieve something: validation, healing, being a good partner, becoming a better version of ourselves.
And then we get into reassurance. I love this part. Because wanting to hear that someone desires you doesn’t have to be a secret, slightly shameful motive you’re hoping they won’t notice. What happens when you can actually ask?
There are some lovely tangents too: whether an experience has to be good to be meaningful, how meaning changes between people and over time, and the strange things we do for the sake of “the relationship” when neither person particularly wants them.
Marika and I don’t arrive at one definition. Which feels about right. I’m curious what this conversation brings up for you.
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Connect with Marika and her work (mostly in Swedish)
🌿 Website: https://sexinspiration.se/
🌿 Instagram: @sexinspiration
🌿 Podcast: Sex på riktigt — https://sexinspiration.se/podcast/
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More from Intimate Breath
🌿 Website: https://www.intimate-breath.com/
🌿 Instagram & Facebook: @intimatebreath
🌿 The next Liberation Journey starts in January 2027 in Belgium.
If you enjoy the episode, I’d love to hear what felt meaningful to you. You can reply, leave a comment, or send it to someone you’d like to have this conversation with.
