Verywell mind - The Power of a Hug On Our Health
“ What Is the Power of a Hug?
What is it about a hug that feels so good? The answer lies in oxytocin, sometimes known as “the love hormone.” This hormone plays a key role in the female reproductive system, particularly in childbirth, and then, following birth, breastfeeding and bonding with the child.
Oxytocin also has social implications2—such as attachment, trust, and pair-bonding. Pair (or social) bonding is known as the desire of spending more time with a person. The release of the hormone helps facilitate this bonding by activating the pleasure centers3 in your brain.
Hugs served an evolutionary purpose to help us know who and who wasn’t safe. While most of us aren’t being chased by lions, tigers or bears, we still experience plenty of day-to-day stress. It can be therapeutic, helpful, and healing to have safe people to turn to for hugs, comfort, and care.
Our nervous systems aren’t primed to recognize emotional stress as any different than that physical stress of being chased by a tiger. So it makes sense that in times of stress, we crave hugs—we want to know that we are safe.
What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Hugs?
Hugging activates the same reward centers in our brain as eating does, so if you’re not getting physical affection, you may feel like you're starved for touch. Not receiving enough physical affection4 is correlated with:
Depression
Stress
Alexithymia (trouble feeling emotions)
Attachment issues
Physical pain5
Poor sleep quality 5
The Power of a Hug on Your Health
As humans, physical touch is very important and there are many ways in which hugging can benefit your health.
Improves Your Sleep
Increases Pleasure and Well-Being
Improved Immunity
Better Cardiovascular Health
Less Fighting
Reduces Pain Symptoms
Better Team Performance
Leads to More Self-Compassion
How to Harness the Power of a Hug (By Yourself Or With Others)
First of all, any hug is better than no hug and there is no “wrong” way to hug! But if you want to squeeze all the benefits you can out of your hug, you can say it’s based on science.
A study found that 5-second and 10-second hugs were linked with higher pleasure ratings15 than a 1-second hug.
While there’s no substitute for being able to reach out and touch someone else if you live alone or aren’t comfortable being hugged by others, there are still ways for you to activate those feel-good hormones that get released from hugging.
Give the Power of a Hug to Yourself
Go ahead—hug yourself! It probably sounds silly, but the act of putting your arms around yourself16
Or Pet an Animal ”Read source article here
Are you a hugger? Do you get/give enough? What you think about this information?
#EmotionalHealth #Hugs #Connection #Affection
@zealousGrace5023 I would say that I'm a hugger depending on the person and the vibes that I'm getting from them. I'm not going to hug someone if they don't really seem like a hugger, but I do hug my parents and my boyfriend and friends occasionally. I think I wish I could receive a little more, but I also just enjoy emotional support too!
@fruityPond7887 that's great! daily hugs are important!
And of course can't just be going around hugging everybody but a good number of people tho
@zealousGrace5023 I need that shirt that was popular in 2012 that said "Free Hugs" 😂
@fruityPond7887 hahah those were a great idea tbh
@zealousGrace5023 At least the virus wasn't around yet 😂 life was good
@fruityPond7887 2012 was a great year lol
minus the world ending panic of course
@zealousGrace5023
Hey Grace! This was a really informative article, and thank you for posting it. I’m not such a hugger in real life, but I enjoy giving and receiving hugs in the virtual world. I think it brings a sense of understanding and compassion into any space. 😊❤️
@ThoughtfulBlossom Happy to share!
And if i remember correctly visualizing actions makes the brain react similarly as to when those things are actually happening
it may not have the same effect but it might still have it's benefits
So virtual hugs are awesome too!
- I have had about ten hugs in as many years
- I don’t know if physical touch is my love language
- I am not sure if love languages are real due to feeling confused about my worth
- I may prefer gifts, acts of service and quality time which I never got growing up so maybe love is dead to me and needing a serious frankenstiening
- Or maybe I justified needing counselling?
@zealousGrace5023
@Dallady I mean counseling might help if you are able to find the right person but even without, some change in perspective might help
love languages are real because everyone's idea of what love is to them is different.
however, I don't know about their application in determining childhood attachment issues since the same language can mean one thing but also the opposite but also not be related to the parenting they received at all.
That being said, it's a great introspective tool to understand how you perceive love and affection, how you think you need to be loved by someone to actually feel loved.
And as you can read in the article, physical touch is a bit of necessity 😅 but thankfully, the research also says that pets and we ourselves can do the job pretty well too. So it's fine you don't show affection physically or aren't comfortable with other people, you still have yourself 😄 or a furchild if you have one :p
It sounds like it’s important to learning how to give myself more physical support.
Lately I’ve been taking bubble and epsom salt baths and being a bit more gentle, patient and loving to myself.
Sometimes it feels like I’m just going backwards but that’s just my mind or brain resisting some change and requiring me to remain firm and in control of myself.
@Dallady yeah the brain tends to resist change a lot
especially healthy change after being used to toxicity
but some self care is a great start
and realising that the resistance from your brain isn't a reflection of what you really want or choose for yourself
@zealousGrace5023
I did not know that hugs have such an enormous impact on us! I think I am not a hugger. I need to know someone for a long time to greet them with a hug, and when I feel sad; I do not usually crave hugs like some of my friends. However, I require a lot of signs of physical affection from my spouse and I think it is necessary for a relationship.
@globalBraid3744 I don't think we need to be huggers to extrapolate all the benefits of physical affection. Even just one person or pet is enough.
@zealousGrace5023
I agree! It is great that also people who are lonely can benefit from it by either embracing themselves or by petting an animal.
@LAmedic9724 So cuteee!!!
@zealousGrace5023 Thank you for this article, it's so wholesome!
I’m a bit confused by this post. So are other forms of love not doing what a hug will do? If someone is eating as well and treating their body as well as they can, and saying words of affirmations to themselves and doing acts of service for themselves, will they then just backslide forever?
@zealousGrace5023
@Dallady i'm not in the position to give you scientifically accurate answer and i think physical affection from self also helps like the article mentions at the end.
i think think recovering and health are linear in anyway
a combination of things can and do help
it would not be crazy to think that the loss of one factor can be made up for by supplementing other factors in
