“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Touch Helps Us Communicate
According to a study by Hertenstein, Holmes, & McCullough, 2009, touch can strongly communicate our “distinct emotions”.
Several other investigators have also found that nonsexual, caring physical touch, such as hugging or hand holding, are an important means of conveying empathy, caring, and reassurance (e.g., Anderson, Girdler, & Light, 2003; Holt-Lunstad, Birmingham, & Light, 2008; Reis & Patrick, 1996).
Touch directly conveys information about our feelings and intentions to the receiver, often better than words, which may fall short of accurately expressing how we feel.
Less Violence
In a 1999 study by researcher Tiffany Field, that compared parent touch in Miami preschool children versus touch in Paris, the French parents were found to be more physically affectionate towards their children than the American parents. And the French children showed less aggression than the American children (Field, 1999a).
Also, in comparisons made between adolescents in Paris and those in Miami, the French adolescents touched each other more than the American who instead tended to spend more time touching their own hair and rubbing their arms. The French adolescents were also physically and verbally less aggressive than the American.
Researchers have concluded from these and other studies that cultures offering physical affection towards their infants show less adult violence.
UCSD Study: Empathy, Compassion and Self Reflection can Help us Build a More Connected, Less Lonely and Happier Society
In a 2018 study by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers found that loneliness has increased in the US to levels never before seen.
Three quarters of the general population experience moderate to high levels of loneliness, negatively affecting their mental and physical health.
The study investigates how loneliness can be alleviated, and according to the researchers, becoming wiser beings with the ability to regulate emotions, self-reflect, be compassionate, tolerate opposing viewpoints, and be decisive can help us build a more connected, less lonely, and happier society.
Sharing long hugs mobilizes our natural social bonding physiology, we embody empathy and connection, building a better future.
Further reading on this study:
The original research paper can be found here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6581650/
Université de Montréal, Canada: Unconditional love is a real thing, is rewarding and contributes to the preservation of the human species.
In case you were wondering, unconditional love is real and easily accessible.
Research into Unconditional Love has shown that maternal love and romantic love have specific neural network areas in the brain that are separate and overlapping, whereas unconditional love was found to have its own distinct neural network in the brain, but also to include structures from the networks of maternal and romantic love that are key to the brain rewards system.
According to the researchers, unconditional love, in similar fashion to maternal and romantic love, helps us create strong emotional bonds between us, and this significantly contributes to the preservation of the human species.
The original research paper appears here:
Mario Beauregard, Jérôme Courtemanche, Vincent Paquette, Évelyne Landry St-Pierre, The neural basis of unconditional love, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, Volume 172, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 93-98, ISSN 0925-4927, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925492708001881
Access without a paywall: https://institutpsychoneuro.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Beauregard2009-Unconditional-love.pdf
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
As new research gets published we will continue updating this page with noteworthy information.
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