Stress has become a constant in the lives of many, affecting family life, work, and everything else they do. People try all kinds of ‘methods’ to keep stress under control, but a simple hug is one thing that’s available for everybody, is free, and has wonderful effects on stress and negative energy.
Research on the effects of hugging has concluded that it’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to live a happy and relaxed life. While you may have embraced these facts already without the need for science to back them, it’s important to wrap your mind around the facts showing the importance to wrap your arms around someone.
HERE ARE 7 SCIENTIFICALLY SUPPORTED REASONS TO GIVE MORE HUGS:
HUGGING BOOSTS YOUR MORALE
One hug at the perfect moment can have a huge impact on someone’s day, and can even affect their way of acting. The action of hugging may have an emotional charge to be received by the one in need but it has a both way action and the psychological bonding between protagonists will enforce both of them creating social relationships.
HUGS RELIEVE PAIN
The act of hugging brain secretes the hormone oxytocin, responsible usually for making mothers forget about birth pain. This way people tend to forget about all the negative aspects of their lives, the pains they endured and focus more on the positive aspects of their life and what they can achieve from that moment on.
HUGS LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE
By taking this aspect into consideration it’s easily observable that your mind is not the only one benefiting from hugs, your body does it too. While you’re hugging someone your skin receptors pick these signals and certain nerves from your body send them to the brain. This feeling of safety and wellness is then transmitted throughout the body and to the heart ending by relaxing your muscles and veins and lowering your blood pressure.
HUGS HEAL THE HEART
A study conducted by the NC University revealed the fact that people who were prevented or simply didn’t have any contact with their loved ones presented an increase in heart beats on the overall measurement. This also has to do with stress and tension accumulated in the body that force the heart to pump blood through harder arteries, struggling to provide the same blood flow. On the other hand people who were submitted to constant hugging showed half the number of heart beats, a more relaxed heart and greater chances to a long and happy life.
HUGS BOOST SELF-ESTEEM AND ELIMINATES FEAR
by hugging someone else people tend to get a boost to their self esteem and fear less what others might think about them, but the feeling of fear and all its aspects (death, failure, loneliness) is reduced to a minimum leaving the ‘actors of the hug’ to handle life much better. The idea of protection and escape can be instinctively seen in the case of children who hug a teddy bear or a blanket and suddenly feel safe. This instinct remains with us throughout our entire life if we are aware of it or not, and has spectacular effects on our health when we least expect it.
HUGS HELP CHILDREN GROW HARMONIOUSLY
Hugging has extraordinary effects on our babies’ health and helps them grow healthy and happy. A link has been discovered between how emotionally supportive we are to our babies and how emotionally stable they are as adults. Studies have also shown that hugging increases how well they can manage stressful situations and how easy they can establish relationships with other people. Take any chance of hugging your children and show them as much love as you can because this will help both of you.
HUGS COMFORT ELDERS
The greatest fear of any old person is loneliness and isolation form society. It is said that loneliness acts rather like a disease than simply a situation and sometimes the stress caused by loneliness can cause the earlier death of that person. Hugging can be a solution to help elders get a chunk of happiness each day – and it doesn’t matter if it’s someone they know or a strange person, the effects are the same because those positive chemical processes are started in the body, regardless of age.
HUGS RELAX NERVES
Studies have shown an improvement of nervous system functioning in the case of people who were hugging. We are electrical beings even if we carry only a small charge, and by hugging the conductance of the nervous system at skin level proved to be more balanced and the nerves more relaxed. By relaxing our nerves (through hugs) we get rid of the tension that makes our life seem so hard sometimes.
