That’s why the hugs make us so well
In difficult times, when you are a bit subdued, a hug can do much. An immediate feeling of wellbeing pervades us as a sweet and soothing relief. A matter of tact, affection, but have you ever suffered for what happens to our body when someone hugs us, enough to make us feel better?
Researchers over the years have worked in the search for mechanisms that are activated in the brain during an embrace, to understand the reason for such a benefit.
Image Source: Google Image
What happens to our body?
During a hug activates the Meissner corpuscles involved in the sensory reception of the contact and present in the surface of the skin. Through nerve fibers to the brain impulses come. Do you think that these particles also contribute to the regulation of blood pressure that suffers, too, of the changes during an embrace.
Obviously, when someone holds us in his arms, can not be no change in hormonal. On the one hand, in fact , it is raised levels of oxytocin and dopamine (the first is called love hormone, the second hormone of pleasure) and on the other reduces the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone called instead. That’s why in children hugging is so important, to calm them and reassure them. No coincidence that the embrace is the gesture that accompanies the birth ; an ancestral act fact.
You may also like to read another article on AnxietyReduction: Benefits of laughter, why make us feel better?
What happens to our minds?
A hug, as mentioned is a reassuring gesture. According to Jose Antonio Serrano, music therapist, it is “a gesture that gives us energy and gives us a sense of peace and inner balance. At a time of difficulty, also, it is worth much more than a simple word of encouragement and allows people more susceptible to awaken the child within each of them.”
The positive psychological effect of the embrace was later confirmed by researchers at University College London. One of them carried out the study has highlighted as an aid hug to have a greater awareness of their own bodies and their own physicality, helping those who receive to feel at ease with themselves. This happens thanks to the proprioceptive signals sent to our brain a sometimes perceived tactile feedback.
Not forgetting the relationship with each other. Embrace comes the awareness of being worthy of being loved, as well as empathy and complicity that health damage.
There were those also established an optimal daily dose of hugs in relation to different objectives. It is the psychotherapist Virginia Satir. The doctor believes that “we need 4 hugs a day for survival, eight to keep us as we are and 12 to grow.”
