Hey everybody, welcome. Today we're gonna talk a little bit about why healthy touch is so important in your life, in a really positive and easy way. We're gonna talk about the science. Would you like to know why 58% of us feel like nobody knows us very well? And would you like to understand the deeper science of how more frequent partner hugs in the higher oxytocin levels can help us lower our blood pressure? Would you like to hear the science about healthy touch, about how even handshakes or snuggling our cat or doing self hugs can change our health for the positive? And would you like to see results in yourself and in your own family and even feel more connected in your life? We're gonna talk about that and more right after the show. Real. Welcome back. The book The Touch Crisis was written in 2019. So many of these statistics have gotten even more dramatic than what they are now. But let's talk a little bit about the positive benefits of healthy touch for you and your family. And once again, I'm talking about even the fact that you're a healthy and healthy and healthy person. And once again, I'm talking about even things like self hugs and self love. I'm talking about taking the time to, when you're in this shower to really be attentive with yourself, I'm talking about snuggling with your dog, your cat, giving handshakes in public. All of these things contribute to the release of oxytocin. Now, oxytocin is our feel good hormone. It helps us feel trusted, bonded, connected. It's known as the cuddling hormone. It helps with relationships. It helps us feel part of in the world. Oxytocin itself is also beneficial for so many health reasons. Oxytocin itself can help us decrease our blood pressure. It can help us have better sleep. It reduces our stress hormone cortisol and so many of us right now run around full of cortisol because we're so stressed out. We don't wanna be stressed out and be running around of cortisol all the time, do we? No. It helps us have more social empathy. And in a time in which people feel polarized and feel a lot of attacks on themselves, their belief systems and against others, it's very healthy to have this healthy touch, very healthy to have a handshake and connection. Now, how are we lacking touch? Well, in 2020, the SIGNA U.S. loneliness and workplace study reported that 58% of the respondents said that they always or sometimes feels like nobody knows them well. But did you know that the number of teens who get together with their friends every day dropped more than 40% from 2000 to 2015? Those numbers, I haven't even found new numbers since the pandemic is hit. And now that we're working remotely, a lot of our jobs limit personal interaction, which means we're limiting the amount of touch we get. We're limiting the amount of bonding. We're limiting the amount of curiosity we have about other people's belief systems. Being able to see them as a human instead of just see them as a bunch of beliefs that maybe do or do not fit ours. Why is this important? Well, we've been led to believe recently that touch is bad or shameful or challenging to address. There have been strong boundaries around touch, which can be really great for some of us and really challenging for others. The question is, how do we navigate our personal boundaries rather than societal norms? How do we navigate both of those fluidly and effectively for our own health and wellbeing? We are creating distance and separation between our countries, between each other and losing the capacity to build trust and compassion between friends and family members and small and large communities. That's tragic, isn't it? For many of us, the word touches even taboo. So it becomes a challenging subject to talk about, which is why I loved writing this book. The information I gave you is just from the introduction. And what I would love to do for you, what I did for you, is I went and I made story and then science and then story and science. So you can see how to navigate healthy touch. In the back, I have a section that has a series of questions so you can explore more deeply in yourself, your belief systems and start playing with ways to communicate more easily what you want, what you need and create safety for yourself and those that you love. Even our no-touch policies aren't doing us justice. Communication and connection and belonging are the second after security and safety on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And did you know that healthy touch is good even for our young? That healthy touch reduces aggression among teens. Tiffany Field, who was the director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, said that and I'm going to read this. A study we conducted on touch in preschool nurseries revealed that children under the age of five were being touched less than 12% of the time and that no touch mandates do not seem to reduce child abuse. Isn't that interesting? That what our children need the most is a sense of belonging, connection, touch in order for growth, physically and mentally and emotionally. And yet we're not giving it to them out of fear of being a perception of abuse or feeling that they might be abused by their teachers, yet it's not reducing the abuse they're receiving. So how can we bring healthy touch back to our culture and back into your own life and your own families and make sure that your children are in your church? Stay tuned. I'll be covering one chapter a week or in the link below, I will have the link to buy the book on Amazon. So write in the box in the comments, what's your biggest takeaway? Virginia Satira family therapist that was very famous once said, we need four hugs for survival, eight hugs a day for maintenance and 12 for growth. How many are you getting? Remember, you are loved, you are loving and you are lovable. What if a few more hugs is all you need to improve your life? I must say.