{"id":1857,"date":"2016-04-14T12:56:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T12:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/?p=1857"},"modified":"2021-07-23T12:03:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T12:03:43","slug":"the-power-of-a-hug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/the-power-of-a-hug\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of a hug"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1536\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1536\" class=\"wp-image-1536 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"hug illustration\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1024x665.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-768x499.jpg 768w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1800x1169.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1200x779.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1536x997.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration.jpg 1925w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/195;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1536\" class=\"wp-image-1536 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"hug illustration\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1024x665.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-768x499.jpg 768w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1800x1169.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1200x779.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration-1536x997.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/hug-illustration.jpg 1925w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1536\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">image: iStock photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A hug is wonderful when you feel sad, stressed, tired and even when you feel good.<\/p>\n<p>I love what the Free Hugs people do when they stand in a city centre holding a \u2018Free Hugs\u2019 sign. Their hugs produce human connection, vulnerability, smiles, laughter, positive emotion, and even sometimes tears, especially if it\u2019s the first hug a person who has been suffering has experienced in a long while.<\/p>\n<p>Hugs are also good for the heart. They increase our levels of the hormone \u2018oxytocin\u2019, which as well as being known for its role in trust, childbirth, and breastfeeding, is also a powerful \u2018cardioprotective\u2019 hormone. This basically means it helps protect the cardiovascular system.<\/p>\n<p>From what? You might ask. From the negative side-effects of poor dietary and lifestyle choices and also from mental and emotional stress.<\/p>\n<p>Oxytocin works by producing nitric oxide in our arteries, which then widens (dilates) our arteries. Nitric oxide helps our arteries stay flexible and also helps reduce blood pressure.<\/p>\n<p>So, ultimately, hugs are cardioprotective too. And I\u2019d say so for more than simply their oxytocin-and-therefore-nitric-oxide-inducing power, but because they make us feel relaxed, cared for, even loved. Hugs are medicine for the soul.<\/p>\n<p>I remember crying in front of my mum and dad when I found out our beloved dog, Oscar, had osteosarcoma and was unlikely to live beyond a few months. Mum hugged me and I melted, collapsed in her arms. I felt like a child again, being loved by and tended to by my mum.<\/p>\n<p>I think we have that memory of being tended to by our parents as children, where we were upset or in pain and we knew that \u2018everything is going to be OK\u2019, \u2018the pain will go soon\u2019, or \u2018it\u2019s OK, Mum (or Dad) will fix it\u2019. It\u2019s a memory held deep in the unconscious but whose emotions are released in our adult lives when we receive a hug.<\/p>\n<p>So hugs are medicine for the heart and they are medicine for the soul. If we could bottle hugs, we would take our daily dose without question.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the thing, you can have a daily dose. You don\u2019t need to wait to be hugged. You can hug others.<\/p>\n<p>As a typical Scottish male (OK, I\u2019m not really able to speak for my entire nation but I\u2019ll make a generalisation based on my 45-year-old observations), hugging didn\u2019t come naturally to me. To be honest, I felt like a sissy if someone hugged me. I\u2019d do the whole, awkward, chest-held-back-not sure-about-touching thing, followed by a little pat on the back, secretly hoping that the hug would end soon.<\/p>\n<p>But I learned to enjoy hugs. I think it happened when I was in my late 20\u2019s and Mum (again to the rescue) looked after me for a week while I suffered a bout of depression. It was the first time in my adult life I opened up to someone. I think something shifted in me then, a willingness to open up to others that I\u2019d not showed before. I then became an initiator of hugs.<\/p>\n<p>Even in the bar on a Thursday night after work (that was our standard weekly visit), I\u2019d say goodbye to my friends at the end of the night with a hug. At first, some of them were a little awkward but soon got the hang of it too. It came natural to some others. But within a month or two, a hug was the standard goodbye for us after a few drinks in the bar.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019d add that hugs are also contagious. As we hug others, we share a connection. It opens us a little. It feels good. And that makes it contagious.<\/p>\n<p>So given the medicine that hugs carry, that they are free, and contagious (in a good way), it might be a good idea to see if you can add a few more hugs to your day.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019d be doing yourself a favour, but each time you hug you also deliver a gentle dose of medicine to the heart and soul of another person too.<\/p>\n<p>And that is the power of a hug.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A hug is wonderful when you feel sad, stressed, tired and even when you feel good. I love what the Free Hugs people do when they stand in a city centre holding a \u2018Free Hugs\u2019 sign. Their hugs produce human connection, vulnerability, smiles, laughter, positive emotion, and even sometimes tears, especially if it\u2019s the first&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,97,56,78,165],"tags":[77,19,10,49,12,26,15],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The power of a hug - David R Hamilton PHD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A hug is wonderful when you feel sad, stressed, tired and even when you feel good. 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