Welcome to IQ, Grace. As Wade says, this is a caring and compassionate place so you need not worry about interacting here.

I can certainly relate to your feeling of "being alone" despite having friends. I spent many years with that feeling and I quite understand how soul-destroying it can be. There's a feeling of "something missing" that you can't quite seem to fill.

One thing I've finally come to understand thanks to the many insightful people/beings I've encountered along my own continuing path of awakening is that you are never alone even when you think you are...there are powerful consciousnesses constantly swirling around, interacting with, and supporting each of us even if we are not aware that they are there...but that's probably an answer for another question sometime :)

You clearly understand already many of the reality-creation ideas that many of us on IQ endlessly talk about so I'm sure you realize that the "intimacy and deep connection" you are actually seeking is the connection to your Self (your inner self).

When we love another, we are actually using the other person as an excuse to love the parts of our Self that the other represents to us.

And when we don't feel fully "connected" to ourselves, we often project that missing connection onto the need for an intimate relationship with another.

And that's fine, but I'd just like to remind you that when the person you seek arrives in your life (which they definitely will, given your vibrational attitude) you may discover that they still don't quite fill that physical "gap" in the way you expected them to.

Nevertheless, there is a vast amount of joyful experience to be had when interacting physically with others (not least because we define who we are physically in relation to other human beings - a mother, a daughter, a lover, a friend, a colleague etc.) so here's some advice on pulling in that physical manifestation...

I think you've basically answered your own question regarding what I think is the most appropriate course of action for you right now.

If you are at a point where you already feel good about what you want and you have a feeling of Expectation about it then you've done all the vibrational work you ever need to do regarding it

Because of the principle that "your vibration stays where you last left it", if you were to do nothing else now but keep yourself feeling happy on other subjects, the Universe has no choice but to manifest physically what you want in your life.

The vibration you are currently emitting has to be matched by the Law of Attraction - because that's what the Law of Attraction does, consistently, impersonally and eternally. A thought, once thought, pulses eternally at the same frequency until you revisit it and change the frequency of it by thinking something different.

So, yes, get your attention off the subject - onto other good-feeling subjects - and let the Universe deliver what it now has to deliver to you in whatever way is most appropriate for you. Don't try to force it to come in a certain form or a certain way, just let it unfold naturally and you'll often be surprised at how different (and better) the end-result is compared to what you originally expected.

For me, for getting my attention off a subject, I have a long list of hobbies and interests and things that I enjoy doing for no reason other than it makes me feel good to do them. I also have long lists of things I want to learn about and experience in this physical world and become an "armchair expert" in.

Whenever I find myself getting too attached to something that I feel I need, I just get involved in some of those things and it helps me forget about the thing I am yearning for (beware of yearning!) and that provides the space to let what I want naturally unfold in my life.

As I mentioned in a previous answer recently, when one can treat the positive emotion of what you want as the final manifestation then you are in the perfect vibrational stance to allow it to physically manifest.

So a good way of living life generally is to mold your thoughts into a good-feeling place regarding what you want and once you feel you are there, simply move on to other subjects in your life with the knowing that you've now done everything you need to do regarding that original subject.

You can allow yourself to feel great as vibrational matches naturally pop up in your life and make themselves known to you but really, all your vibrational work is done and it's just up to the Universe now to fulfil it's side of the bargain...which it certainly will when you keep yourself out of the way of it.

You are not really changing manifestation techniques by doing this because, ultimately, there is only one manifestation technique and that is to align yourself with where your Inner Self already is (living with your manifestation). Just Getting Happy (direct alignment with Self) is the simplest and easiest manifestation technique of all.

All these mental games we play with ourselves and which we label as "manifestation techniques" are really just excuses we are giving to ourselves to allow that alignment to happen and thereby allow what we have already created to naturally flow to us.

So there's a few rambling thoughts for you, Grace. Hope there's something in there to help you :)