Do you feel like blessing is flirting?

[Zwee]

So... I recently got out of a super long (5 year) relationship and I'm realizing I have completely forgotten how to flirt. I'm going crazy because I already develop crushes easily and now there's a very real possibility that flirting could ACTUALLY lead to something. Which makes me overthink everything. Including blessing people.

I realize this is ridiculous, but this is a sneeze fetish forum, so I'm hoping someone around here understands this feeling of flirting just because you're saying "bless you" to someone you're interested in. Like, it's not like I think the person who sneezed will actually know that I'm flirting when I bless them. I just feel like I am. Not all the time, either, because I usually bless my friends/coworkers/boss/strangers and don't feel like I'm flirting with them, because I'm not attracted to them in that way.

But here's an example: I was watching a movie with a guy I'm developing a debilitating crush on, as well as a few of our friends, and the guy sneezed once. I had been blessing my friend all night, as she's had a super sneezy cold, but for some reason when he sneezed it felt like a BIG DEAL to bless him. (To make matters worse, he didn't respond and I felt incredibly weird about it.)

Do any of you ever feel this way?

[sickprincess]

YES, all the time. When I have a crush on a guy, I get so embarrassed saying "bless you." It makes me feel vulnerable I guess? He probably didn't think anything of it and didn't think he needed to respond, but I agree, I'd feel weird about that, too.

I definitely will use sneezing as a topic for flirtatious banter if I'm feeling confident, and blessing someone can be part of that. (Sometimes I'll be too shy to even open up that can of worms). 

[Sequoia]

I think I feel like that, too. Just the other way around

I stopped blessing people at some point in primary school, probably when I noticed that other's didn't feel about sneezing the same way I did. This worked out quite well, but sometimes there are situations where I have to bless someone(like, everyone's blessed her and then they are staring at me) and that feels so strange. Just wrong. Especially with friends or family. I can only say some kind of mumbled "Gesundheit". And if this person says "thank you", I'm really irritated. I usually try to ignore it and change the topic. I know it's silly to feel like that, but I can't help it.

But if it's some cute boy who sneezed, I actually want to bless him and it feels as if I've started flirting. I mean, it's still hard to say it, but  it feels right.
And if he doesn't reply, it's even worse than not being noticed at all. Same as ignoring my first attempt of flirting  And he doesn't even know what he has done to me. 

[Snz.]

Pretty much, if it's from or to someone you see as a romantic interest. Especially if the fetish became a part of a past relationship. It almost becomes part of the affection or care that comes with the relationship itself. It also depends on the inflection it's given.

[Zwee]

Okay YES, thank you! It's such a weird feeling because the person probably has NO idea that this is a big deal for you or that you're flirting because it's such a normal, commonplace thing.

19 hours ago, SneezingLove said:

Oh no! I'm so sad he didn't say thank you. I'm huge on getting thanked for a blessing...I would've felt so awkward, especially knowing it took such guts to say it in the first place! I've been there, and it sucks

Me too! I felt ridiculously weird about the fact that he didn't say thank you or even acknowledge the fact that he'd sneezed... I actually had a feeling he'd be the sort of person to be kinda awkward about sneezing, but I'd been flirting with him on and off all night, not to mention the fact that I had blessed my friend 1000 times that night, so it felt like it'd be more awkward not to bless him.

[Saimou]

Yeah, I feel the exact same way about blessing, especially if it’s a crush of mine. When I was younger, I was quite afraid of blessing people, because I was paranoid about them finding out my fetish. It’s worth noting that almost no one blesses others in Finland, unless the sneeze is particularly attention-fixating (Yay for me making up new words !), or there’s a long fit.

It does kind of suck that he didn’t bless you, though. I’ve been to that situation a few times: once with a junior high crush of mine (whom I will probably write a few obs about), and once (or twice) with The Love Of My Life from high school, I wrote my favourite obs about her. It is kinda awkward. But anyway:

Take care and keep sneezing, everyone!

Saimou

[Alyssa1146]

I think it can be, depending on the situation.  I will bless someone when it's not flirting sometimes, but I won't if I don't want to engage with that person particularly.  I don't consider the latter rude.

I will generally bless people I know unless they demand being blessed, which I find particularly annoying.  Someone in my family, but not immediate family, is an attention seeker that demands to be blessed.  I don't particularly like attention seeking behavior, especially when it's chronic.  I try to ignore her whenever I can when she sneezes because she makes such a production out of every single thing.  

But I certainly could use it and WOULD to engage someone I'm interested in.  It's a good ice breaker for sure if you want it to be!

[Zwee]

On 1/10/2018 at 4:31 PM, Alyssa1146 said:

I will generally bless people I know unless they demand being blessed, which I find particularly annoying.  Someone in my family, but not immediate family, is an attention seeker that demands to be blessed.  I don't particularly like attention seeking behavior, especially when it's chronic.  I try to ignore her whenever I can when she sneezes because she makes such a production out of every single thing.  

UUUGHH that is horrendous. Yeah, I NEVER bless people that have an obviously attention-getting sneeze (like the people that scream-sneeze on purpose, or the people that have put-on, overly-cutesy sneezes) because I get a sort of mean satisfaction from not giving them what they are demanding... Plus usually someone else will do it for me.

On 1/10/2018 at 2:22 PM, SneezingLove said:

Yeah that's so disappointing! Did he bless your friend as well? I wonder if he's one of those people that doesn't like to bless or give thanks after a blessing in general.

He did not bless my friend, so I came to the same conclusion... EXCEPT I got to hang out with him again a few days ago and sneezed a couple of times and he laughed and said "bless you!" in a VERY flirtatious way... sooOOOOOooo...  looks like I was wrong after all.

 

On 1/9/2018 at 1:35 PM, Saimou said:

When I was younger, I was quite afraid of blessing people, because I was paranoid about them finding out my fetish.

That's so funny, I did the exact same thing, for the same reason! Now I love blessing (specific) people because it's fun and makes me feel flirty, however ridiculous that may be, haha!

[Saimou]

6 hours ago, Zwee said:

That's so funny, I did the exact same thing, for the same reason! Now I love blessing (specific) people because it's fun and makes me feel flirty, however ridiculous that may be, haha!

Quite funnily, it’s the exact same thing for me .

[Saimou]

On 9.1.2018 at 11:35 PM, Saimou said:

It does kind of suck that he didn’t bless you, though.

I mean that he didn’t *thank* you.

[zneeze]

Yep, same here! It's part of the reason I hate to bless people I'm not attracted to, but I do it begrudgingly most of the time... it's so much better when I get to acknowledge some pretty woman's sneeze.

[Saimou]

On 20.1.2018 at 6:37 AM, zneeze said:

Yep, same here! It's part of the reason I hate to bless people I'm not attracted to, but I do it begrudgingly most of the time... it's so much better when I get to acknowledge some pretty woman's sneeze.

My thoughts exactly .

[Hygge]

It does feel kinda flirtatious to me now that you mention it hahah. I like never bless people. I would like to.... but I also don’t wanna draw more attention to sneezes when I’m in public hah. It kind of feels intimate. Maybe not necessarily flirtations to me... but like if I care about a person, i want to be able to bless them and be blessed by them. Romantically or just buddies... but strangers, acquaintances, people I’m not close with... I don’t care about blessing. I have no desire to bless them or be blessed by them...I would probably ignore them if they blessed me haha. Just because I don’t want to perpetuate the lingo and conversation surrounding sneezes hahah. 

[Eights of Spades]

i'm definitely guilty of only blessing someone I'm interested in...every now and then i'll bless someone who i'm not because I think someone might catch on...which is kind of ridiculous but yeah it definitely feels like a subtle flirting.  a girl I work with...and have a crush on...we have a habit of always blessing each other, but neither of us bless any one else really.  

[Sneesee]

I bless most people. However, when it comes to people I am close to, or find attractive, then yes, it does almost seem like flirting. And if someone blesses the person I'm crushing on before I do, I get a little jealous. Lol 

[MaiMai]

Yes! I definitely understand this feeling, too. I know that it's me overthinking it, but I always feel especially awkward trying to bless people that I have a crush on... (Though I rarely bless people, but somehow, it's more appealing to bless someone I think is cute? ) A month or two ago I was out with some friends and ended up in a situation where I could have blessed the guy I have a crush on (we were kind of drunk and sat opposite each other and I accidentally made eye-contact with him during the thing happening but that's a whole story I don't need to flail about here! ), and instead of blessing him, I (over-affectionately RIP) asked him if he was okay and then couldn't stop giggling when it happened again...which thankfully he joined in with. So yes, it feels so much like flirting to me that when I could do it, I tend to lapse into nervous giggles instead

[forestdaze]

yes! i know exactly what you mean. At one point in my life when I blessed someone too much (or even at all) i thought, omg they knoww! It's kind of ridiculous. haha. But it's just because we think about it differently/more in depth. It's natural for the others to say it like it's nothing but it is just so endearing to us so we pay attention how people respond and react when we bless them. But don't worry about him not responding. Maybe he didn't hear you or just grew up in a household where they don't bless each other. My ex and his whole family never blessed anyone. haha. strange. Either that or because you were blessing your friend all night he just kinda tuned out the word. Maybe he didn't want to bring the attention to himself.

[Uhhh]

For me, I never have the guts to bless ANYONE, so it kinda makes me feel awkward and mean, but it just makes me so uncomfortable!