The Power of Touch

I just returned from a much-needed massage. The hour I spent in the experienced hands of a woman I have never met left me feeling relaxed, helped ease my pain throughout my neck and shoulders and dulled the persistent headache I have been plagued with for weeks. 


Beyond the physical benefits of this massage, I am also aware and astounded by the more positive state of being I am now experiencing. The simple act of her touch . . . her hands in constant contact with my body . . . nourished more than just my aching, tight and knotted muscles. It helped to fill one of my basic needs-- the need to be touched. 


Since reading Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages several years ago, I have known that my personal love language is Physical Touch. I don't know if this means my need for touch is greater than the next person, I just know that when I'm touched-- whether that is a hug, kiss, embrace or simple caress-- I feel loved. Conversely, when I am not touched for a period of time I start to feel unloved, ignored, and abandoned.

"Whatever there is of me resides in my body. To touch my body is to touch me. To withdraw from my body is to distance yourself from me emotionally." -The Five Love Languages

There is myriad research in the area of touch. I remember learning about Harry Harlow's classic, although controversial, isolation and maternal-separation experiments on rhesus monkeys in my high school AP Psychology class (many, many years ago). The experiment was pivotal in that it proved the need for contact comfort  in a time when it was common advice to limit and avoid bodily contact in an attempt to avoid spoiling children. 

And now we have the recent emergence of healing touch. Healing touch is "an energy (biofield) therapy that encompasses a group of non-invasive techniques that utilize the hands to clear, energize, and balance the human and environmental energy fields" (http://www.healingtouch.net/). Forms of healing touch include energy therapy, Energy Field Disturbance and Reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. My sister, a student of Reiki, has performed this touch technique on me and from it I've experienced amazing benefits.

It is administered by laying on hands and is based on the idea that an unseen life force energy flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's life force energy is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

The concept of laying on hands is not new. It is ancient and part of many spiritual paths, perhaps best known in Christianity. 

“They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:18)

Healing Touch is used to energize, restore, and balance an energy field disturbance, or harm of the body, mind, and spirit.  The detected energy can be equalized by therapists who pass their hands over the patient’s body.  It is as if the practitioners take over as the human energy support system until the person’s own system can function.  Ultimately, when energy flows freely throughout the body, the person is healthy.  Typically, healing touch involves meditation, aromatherapy, sounds, and spiritual journeys.     

So the next time you have a chance to offer a positive touch to your loved ones, whether it is your friend, child, parent, sibling, or spouse/mate . . . do it with intent and with the understanding that your touch might be just what they need to overcome a negative feeling, pain or hurt. Just as our  words are powerful, so is our touch.