In times of isolation, quarantine and social distancing it may sound ironic to write about hugs, but I do feel compelled to do so. Hugging is one of the most powerful means of closeness, not only in humans but also in animals, and even if you are alone, you can still hug yourself or even hug a tree and feel its powerful effect.
Hugging is a powerful way of healing. Hugging is the fastest way to release oxytocin in your blood which heals feelings of loneliness, isolation and anger. It is extremely effective in healing disease, stress, depression and anxiety.
It lowers blood pressure, lowers cortisol levels and improves the quality of your sleep.
In challenging times, where human contact is so limited like now, we have the opportunity to pay attention to our own presence, to our own person and its very vast complex aspects of being, and alas remember how to self smooth ourselves. Our bodies already know how to do that, we just need to remind ourselves. We just need to get out of the way and allow love to stretch and grow.
A hug has the power to make us fall in love and when we are in love our brain changes for the better, love brings out the best in us. So let’s consider how powerful it can be to fall in love with ourselves in an honest and long lasting way.
I would strongly suggest self hugs many times a day to anyone who wants to improve their quality of life. It is possible, it is free and it is simple, no matter how challenging our present situation is, neither what is going on in the outside world.
We learn the feeling of safety and love as soon as we are born, as we are cuddled and hugged in the most loving way from our parents, it is the first experience we have in our lives and it stays forever in our body memory.
Throughout our lives we experience again and again the feeling of being hugged, in the most different situations, these are all emotional and physical memories.
Even after we are all free from quarantine and social isolation and able to hug others again, I still believe in the power and the need of self hugging.
Closeness is a choice and hugging is always available to us as long as we are in our amazing and highly resilient and intelligent physical bodies.