The Importance and The Power of Human Touch.
[Music]
ah
great
wow breathing
and touching whoever would have thought
these things
would have become fraught with anxiety
for so many people would have been
subject
to rules and regulations
ah breathing and touching
so fundamental for all of us human
beings
and so important at this point of time
to be aware of how we breathe and who we
touch
so many social restrictions stay two
meters away
wash your hands wear a mask
all of these things are important to
protect ourselves
and other people at this time of
pandemic
many people are suffering and dealing
with
symptoms of the covet virus
and suffering physically but there are
so many people who are suffering
emotionally because of this virus
people dealing with isolation anxiety
depression even suicidal thoughts
so difficult for so many people
and i’ve spoken to countless people
over these last months and so many
people report
feeling just not good in their skin
and when i really asked what it was
people were experiencing tactile
deprivation what do i mean
by tactile deprivation
touch tactile deprivation
lack of and touch is something that we
all need for healthy
function and to really thrive
in the world as human beings so many
people are cocooning
and isolating and shielding
and lacking touch and we took
touch for granted hugs
cuddles high fives handshakes
and now there’s this absence of touch
and we really miss it
and it’s like our skin is hungry for
touch
and i’m not talking about sexual touch
i’m talking about non-sexual physical
contact
and we all need that to survive
so skin hunger tactile deprivation
when were you last touched when were you
last
hugged when will you be next
touched or next hugged
how did it feel did it bring up
a kind of a longing and a relief or did
it make you feel sad
was it something you really missed
touch is always emotional
and we all need good physical touch
we’ve all seen images of romanian babies
who lack touch they
survived but they didn’t thrive and to
really thrive as a human being
we need contact and you think of that
word
con and tact with touch
we’re apes we like to touch each other
to groom
it’s part of our social function
it determines who we are and when we
don’t have touch
we miss it and so many people
are missing touch right now now i don’t
take it for granted
the touch is a positive experience for
everybody
if you’ve had good bonding as a child
then touch is something you really enjoy
and you can relax
into it and you can trust it
but if touch has been something fraught
with
difficulty abuse maybe there hasn’t been
appropriate touch
it’s not something that you will relax
into
something you’ll avoid but for most
people touch is an essential part of
being
human now you may ask why does this
interest me
this whole area of touch has been
fundamental to my work for the last
40 years or so i trained as a
psychotherapist and a massage therapist
and a bodywork therapist and i
understand the connection between the
mind and the body
i have always been more interested in
the psychological application of touch
more really than just the manipulation
of muscles
many years ago i was invited
to give a lecture in sweden
at the first conference on death and
dying
the reason i was invited was because i
had
taught massage to nurses
at the michael sobel hospice i’d been
many times president of the irish
massage
therapists association and i was asked
to teach the nurses
and i could see what they were doing had
beneficial effects
they were working with their patients
who were terminally ill and they
found that anxiety was decreased
when massage was introduced as part of a
care plan
people slept better pain seemed to
diminish
and so on and i knew these things
from what i could see and from what
people were reporting back
but when i was asked to give this talk i
was much younger
more insecure and i decided well i
needed
facts and research to substantiate and
back up what i knew to be true
intuitively
so i spent two days in a medical library
in london
trolling through journals and magazines
and so on looking for research
about the importance and the benefits of
human touch
believe me this was the time before the
internet
there was nothing there there were
research papers
on monkeys who gravitated
towards terry cloth monkeys rather than
barbed wire monkeys
but nothing about human touch
so i gave my lecture
and i gave it on the basis of what i
knew
and i felt was right and since then
there has been so much research in the
last 40 years
on touch if you have a body
touch is beneficial from the cradle to
the grave
touch with pre-term infants touch with
toddlers
touch with adolescents touch with the
bereaved
touch in palliative care it’s part
and fundamental part of being human
i’m also a funeral celebrant and i have
seen
first hand how people have been been
impacted
by this lack of touch at this particular
time
touch it says more than a thousand words
it’s soothing it connects it gives you
support
it helps us get through difficult times
and many people have complicated grief
and bereavement issues because of this
lack of human connection and human
contact
as human beings i believe that love
is one of our greatest
greatest greatest things that we can
express and we can express that through
our hands
if you think of our capacity to love and
how we express
i believe that our hands grow directly
out of our hearts
and our hands are a vehicle to connect
up
with other people
i’d like you to look at a slide or two
slides that i have here
they’re interesting slides and what they
represent
is a proportional representation
of the human body and a cross-section
of the cerebral cortex one showing motor
function
and one showing sensory function
and if you look at it the parts of the
brain related to the hand
there’s a lot of motor function in the
hand it’s very complicated
and if you look at the parts the brain
related to
sensation and the hand you’ll see how
sensitive
the hand is the hand
feels so much the hand
feels all kinds of textures and the hand
not only
feels but also feels emotionally
touch is so important in our lives
and at this time we need to feel
connected
and we need to understand the benefits
of human touch
and how that can help us and we think of
the benefits
tactile stimulation of the skin somebody
once referred to the skin as a sort of
second brain it relates to the
immune system it relates to the
digestive system
it relates to all the systems in the
human body
there are so many sensory receptors
in the skin and when they’re stimulated
anxiety decreases
when we’re anxious when we’re lonely
when we’re depressed
we have a lot of cortisol in our systems
that makes us feel anxious and tense
but when we’re relaxed and the skin
is stimulated all kinds of other
hormones are released oxytocin
dopamine and these things
increase your sense of well-being
isn’t that amazing that stimulation of
the skin
has such a deep effect on so many
systems of the body
so what can we do about that if we’re in
relationships
well and good we can have our partners
or our families
working with us to soothe and to cuddle
and comfort and to hug
but so many people are living on their
own
so what can what can they do
to support themselves and self-nourish
and care and comfort
at this time well there’s lots that can
be done
we can intentionally soothe our skins
it doesn’t matter if you’re doing it
through clothes or skin to skin
but gentle stroking can make you feel
comforted and that has a deep response
on as i said all the systems of body
soothing caring massaging
holding
if you have partners or if you have
children
sit on the couch hug them back rubs
if you’re on your own and you have a pet
the interesting thing about touch is the
benefits are mutual
if you stroke your pet he or she will
respond
and so will you it will be a beneficial
experience
stimulate your skin with showers with
the wind
cuddle yourself in a blanket and just
know that all these things are having a
beneficial effect
on your whole body
so let’s hope that when this pandemic is
over
and we can get back out there and we can
hug our friends and comfort and cuddle
and reach out that we will all remember
the importance of skin contact
and the fact that your hands really are
rooted in your heart
and they are a vehicle for expressing
love into our world
[Music]
you