Tuesday, November 09, 2010

6 Reasons: You Need To Be Touched

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia 


Do you ever feel like you’re living in a bubble, surrounded by people but never touched? We live in such a busy, crowded world, yet it’s so easy for many of us to go days, even weeks or months without touching or being touched by others.
While you might not notice the effects of not being touched right away, it can negatively affect your mood and health. We are only beginning to understand the holistic way our bodies work and the relationship between our emotional well being and our physical health. Here are 6 reasons why you need to be touched on a regular basis.
1. Feel connected to others. We are social beings, and although we all fall in different places on the introversion – extroversion scale, we all need to have that sense of connection to other members of our tribe. While some of that connection can come from having conversations with others, touch also plays an important role in human communication.
2. Reduce anxiety. Simply touching another person can make us feel more secure and less anxious. It can make us feel grounded and safe and not so all alone. It’s not just children who could use a warm, reassuring hug to make things a little better, so if you’re feeling like a bundle of nerves, go ahead and ask for a hug.
3. Bonding. Touch is one of the ways romantic partners bond with each other and parents bond with their children. When partners and families get busy and let touch go out the window, they’ll often find that they don’t feel as close and relationships suffer. Regular touch is one of the ways that we continually renew our bonds with those we love.
4. Lowers your blood pressure. Studies have shown that those that get regular touch often have lower blood pressure than those that don’t. Even having a pet can have beneficial effects! Touch can also slow the heart rate and help speed recovery times from illness and surgery.
5. Improve your outlook. It’s harder to get into a pessimistic funk when you feel connected to others. Touch can make people feel more optimistic and positive and less cynical and suspicious. A positive, trusting attitude towards others can reduce tension in our daily lives and improve our relationships.
6. Give us the sensory input that we crave. Scientists are just discovering how truly important it is to exercise all our physical senses for proper brain and emotional development. All the various kinds of touch from butterfly kisses to deep tissue massage send our brains the physical inputs it needs to make sense of the world. So, along with touching other people and pets, make time to explore different textures and touch sensations such as letting cool sand run through your fingers or taking a warm relaxing bath.
Don’t let yourself get too busy that you starve yourself of touch. It’s important for your physical, mental and emotional well being to touch others and let others touch you.

33 comments:

  1. Nice post. I've heard about this before.

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  2. nice post happy blogging... if you don't mind kindly click on my sponsor link ads thanks...

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  3. wow, that's very interesting

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  4. I actually never really thought about this before..

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  5. huh didn't know that. good info.

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  6. great post, thanks for info :)

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  7. Anonymous8:25 AM

    The question is: how do we go about getting this affection from others?

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  8. good post man...good work

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  9. Anonymous9:23 AM

    wow ive never thought about it that way but it makes sense now

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  10. very interestig.i'll share that post

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  11. I love touch it's so soothing and sensual!

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  12. Im a huggy person and when I dont have a girlfriend, I just need to hug my siblings or parents, I can attest for this article!

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  13. This is really nice! Thanks!

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  14. Pretty cool! Guess its time to find a decent gf!

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  15. Somedays I wish I had someone to touch me, others Im glad to be free from the hassle of a relationship

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  16. this doesn't count if I touch myself, right?

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  17. that's good to know :)

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  18. Anonymous3:33 PM

    Good info to know :D!

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  19. great, can't wait for an update

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  20. I hate being touched... Is that weird?

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  21. I'm going to go hug everyone I know.

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  22. Instead of those stupid Hug days, we should have a touch day ;)

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  23. :D i'lll try this out!! I hope I wont creep anyone out.

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  24. Yeah...
    I really miss the touching and compassion I had with my ex-girlfriend. I didn't realize how much I liked it until I no longer had it lol.

    It really is soothing, especially since the last time I touched a person was when I accidentally got kicked by a kid on the bus last week.

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  25. Great advice. This is definitely a need.

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  26. I like physical contact. ;) lol

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