Have you been craving a hug or even just a handshake recently? If so, you’re not alone. Science explains why social support and human touch is essential to mental and physical health, and why we’re in need of it – especially during times of stress and uncertainty.
We’ve all been socially distancing and minimizing physical contact for several months. That’s a long time to go out without physical connection, particularly for those quarantining solo. There’s a large amount of evidence supporting the positive influence of social support on health and wellbeing. Social support can broadly be defined as meaningful relationships that provide compassion, care and reassurance, and serves to enhance resiliency and positive self-image during tough times. Feeling connected to others, especially through physical touch, can protect us from stress-induced illness.
Researchers have found that having a strong sense of social support and physical touch, such as hugging, may help buffer against infection during stressful situations. Touch from people we trust and care about activates the parasympathetic nervous system; the system that’s responsible for calming and relaxing the body. Having your skin touched stimulates the body to slow down heart rate, decrease blood pressure and levels of cortisol (commonly known as the stress hormone), and release oxytocin (commonly known as the love and bonding hormone).
Essentially, touch helps us to calm down, reduce our stress response and feel better during difficult times.
Being the social creatures that we are, needing physical touch has literally been hardwired into us to increase our feelings of wellbeing in social environments and optimize our chances of survival. While social distancing protocols are in place to protect ourselves and each other, we are particularly in need of social connection and physical touch during a stressful and anxiety-provoking global pandemic.
It’s important that we continue to follow public health guidelines and limit face-to-face contact with others. However, there are a few techniques we can use to get those positive feelings of the body’s calming system activated without actually hugging or holding hands with each other.
Research has shown that massaging others does not only have positive effects on the person receiving the massage, but also on the massager by reducing their levels of cortisol. With that in mind, exercising, going for walks, stretching, giving yourself a hand, foot or head massage, and rubbing lotion into your skin are some ways in which we can buffer the effects of stress via physical touch. If you have a pet, pet or hug them!
Better yet, close your eyes and give yourself a big hug. It might sound silly but there is powerful science behind compassionately holding ourselves.