The act of being hugged is something we all remember from a very young age. The first, very first thing that a mother and father do with a baby when they come into the world is precisely that, hug them.
And then we hug and they hug us all the time: hug to calm pain and crying, hug to show love, hug to comfort in the face of failure or loss, hug to welcome grief and sadness, hug when goodbye arrives, hug to thank and congratulate an achievement achieved … The hug is so present in our day to day that many times we are not aware of it and we get used to it in such a way that it loses its meaning, becoming a mechanized act and automatic.
If the hug is used from minute one of life, it is neither more nor less because touch, like the need for contact, is one of the most developed senses that babies have and with which we arrive in this world.
We cannot talk about the hug, without also talking about the well-known and studied Attachment Theory of John Bowlby. According to this, babies come into the world with an innate biological programming to create a bond with the mother and thus be able to survive and get protection.
In relation to this, several experiments were carried out in which orphaned children were observed, deprived of attachment and contact with the mother figure, and it was found that these children later suffered negative and unpleasant consequences that impeded their emotional and social development in a satisfactory way .
The conclusion they reached is that it is not about being continuously centered on the child, overprotecting him and that there is no life beyond the baby; The experiments advise that it is essential that the little ones feel the care and that their needs for affection, affection and attachment are covered.
Benefits of hugging
- Complete our need for affection . Affection is one of the basic needs of the human being, as are the needs for food or rest, for example. And the hug is one of the ways in which affection reaches us.
- Add confidence and security. The human being arrives in this virgin world of hatred, clean of selfishness, but also inexperienced, insecure, defenseless, fragile and contact and hugging give us that security and confidence so necessary to develop little by little and for proper emotional functioning .
- It improves our self-esteem and encourages us. What happens when you have a low mood one day and you get an unexpected hug? Well, your mood rises and the person automatically feels better. If you don’t believe it, start practicing it.
- It generates pleasure . In the same way that when we eat chocolate our brain secretes hormones related to pleasure, specifically dopamine and serotonin, when we hug or hug us, exactly the same thing happens.
- Decrease stress . The hormones that I mentioned in the previous section have another function as a whole, that of reducing stress levels, generating peace of mind, so another of the benefits of hugging is precisely that, the reduction of stress.
- Lowers blood pressure . It has been proven that people who have more physical contact and receive hugs on a regular basis, have lower blood pressure than people who do not receive such hugs regularly.
The coronavirus for now is putting limits on us, but when all this happens, don’t be ashamed or sorry. Start doing it again, let yourself go, enjoy it and take advantage of its countless benefits.
Dafne Cataluña, psychologist and founder of the IEPP.
