Never more than now – especially after the best part of a year of being cooped up inside (with or without loved ones). We were starting to stretch our legs and travel the globe again, get back to work and visit parks with our kids with both excitement and trepidation. Is this the new normal to feel like you are being watched and hence weary of what your health will do in the next few hours?!
Are you questioning like many of us everything we were working towards and all the bad habits we picked up pre lock down? more more more… More health, more wealth, more self-understanding, more time, more friends, more work. I genuinely feel that due to a sense of uncertainty and unsettling times that we have started pulling back to simpler, more accessible and less materialistic goals and aspirations.
I have found in these strange days that I am at my best when I am learning and exploring which in itself has been interesting to navigate with such quick changes to how we are allowed to move around and who we can see.
I found my time being spent venturing into what body talk practitioner Yannula Webb has been navigating alongside us for some time. Exploring the depths and legacies of energy and how it all whizzes and whirls around us to give us the best version of ourselves, peace and understanding. Heal your body and mind.
(Please take care and act responsibly in these strange times of COVID 19 and only practice with your bubble or household members. Please refer to government guidelines for clarity).
Beatrice.
The 20 Second hug, by Yannula Webb
“The importance of physical contact must not be underestimated and I feel it is important to think about how we connect for the good of ourselves and others. In an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty I want to provide you with a mechanism that will drive out the noise and take you to a simpler place. The inner home of the heart. And the way to get there is through the 20 second hug.
But I want to give a little bit of attention to the emotions before I talk more about the 20 second hug, to give you some context and belief in its ability as a technique.
So, what are the main emotions? The main emotions are anger, fear, grief, sadness and worry. We feel them all the time and they are vital to existence, mobilising us and enabling us to move through life. They aren’t negative or polarizing (ie. good or bad) but sit on a spectrum. If fear is the midpoint then courage sits at one end of the spectrum and phobia at the other.
It’s when the emotions get stuck, internalized and unexpressed that the real trouble starts. So grief that closes off, worry that acts like a stuck record, anger festering, sadness that burns away joy or fear that paralyses.
This is stress and it literally taxes the body.
So how can the 20 second hug help us? The 20 second hug affects the psychophysiology and what that means is the physical effect measured on the body has an equally measurable and long-lasting effect on the mind and emotions. The warm embrace releases oxytocin, the love hormone which floods the body, cascading through the circulation, reducing blood pressure and cortisol production. This is then reflected in mood and as the feelings of stress go down the happiness and satisfaction levels rise. It’s a state which is resting, alert and restorative. All is right in the world.
It’s the reason a new born baby is placed on its mother’s chest. The skin to skin contact helps the baby to recover after birth – lowering the berating rate, stabilizing the heart rate and oxygen levels and reducing the levels of stress hormone that baby needed at the time of birth.
You see this beautifully orchestrated biochemical reaction to warm embrace is a literal lifeline, designed to make connection both life giving and life enhancing. It’s why we want and need to hug. And its symbiotic, what’s happening to you, is happening to them. You are filling your own cup and theirs.
So where you can, I encourage you to hug and do so for 20 seconds. Do it often, multiple times a day and it will deliver in its rich promise sooth and to reveal our true nature.
I want to leave you with a quote from Gabor Mate who says “Attachment is the drive for physical and emotional closeness with other people. It ensures infant survival by bonding infant to mother and mother to infant. Throughout life the attachment drive impels us to seek relationships and companionship, maintains family connections and helps build community. It triggers the chemistry of love and connection, helping us to be the social creatures we are.”
Veltheim Method Lymphatic Drainage
