Clambering up the career and stepping up ladders can be exhausting. It is not only exhausting, it isolating as well. People relate to each other as workers, demanding results and there is no time for nourishing human aspects. Apparently there is a major health issue facing urban people that is just not being addressed.
There was a wide research in England and it was found that people at least should get eight sincere hugs a day for their health and well being. Brits were found to be missing out on 2,808 hugs a year -54 per week -and it could be damaging their health.
What is true in England is true for all hard working people in big cities. People are so engrossed in achieving their targets that they have forgotten that they have a heart – not the physical one but an emotional reservoir. There is an emotional need to touch somebody or be touched by them.
Now this research says, forget a balanced diet, regular exercise and health checks. As well as our five daily portions of fruit and veg we should be getting at least eight hugs a day to ensure the release of the feel-good hormone Oxytocin.
Something about that warm-and-fuzzy feeling when giving or getting a cuddle promotes feelings of happiness and well-being. These days professionals probably spend more time cradling their cell phone, computer mouse or iPod, than a pet or a loved one.
It was Osho who first started hugging people generously way back in the sixties and now the Osho people hug each other with abundance and have found what a wonderful therapy it is.
Says Osho: "Analysis is the way of the mind, hugging is the way of the heart. The mind is the cause of all diseases, and the heart is the source of all healing.
Man needs to be needed. It is one of the most fundamental needs of human beings. Love is the greatest therapy there is. Hugging is only a gesture of love, of warmth, of caring. the very feel of the warmth flowing from the other person melts many illnesses in you, melts the ice-like, cold ego. It makes you again a child.”
“The psychologists are well aware of the fact now that unless a child is hugged, kissed, he misses some nourishment. Just as the body needs food, the soul needs love. You can give to the child all the physical needs, all the physical comforts, but if hugging is missing the child will not grow in a wholesome being.”
Maybe we could all benefit from a hug once in a while, and we shouldn't be afraid to offer them either, now it's "officially" good for your health.
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