Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 3, issue 12, I June 2019 | Page 24

with, make more of an effort to touch more often.
Touching is incredibly powerful. We just don’t give it enough credit. It makes
you more persuasive, increases team performance  improves your flirting….
heck, it even boosts math skills.
Touching someone you love actually reduces pain. In fact, when studies
were done on married couples, the stronger the marriage, the more powerful
the effect.
In addition, holding hands with someone can help comfort you and your brain
through painful situations. One fMRI study scanned married women as they
were warned that they were about to get a small electric shock. While
anticipating the painful shocks, the brain showed a predictable pattern of
response in pain and worrying circuits, with activation in the insula, anterior
cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
During a separate scan, the women either held their husbands’ hands or the
hand of the experimenter. When a subject held her husband’s hand, the
threat of shock had a smaller effect. The brain showed reduced activation
in both the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex— that
is, less activity in the pain and worrying circuits. In addition, the stronger the
marriage, the lower the discomfort-related insula activity.
So hug someone today. And do not accept little, quick hugs. No, no, no.
Tell them your neuroscientist recommended long hugs. :))
A hug, especially a long one, releases a neurotransmitter and hormone
oxytocin, which reduces the reactivity of the amygdala.
Research shows “getting five hugs a day four weeks” increases
happiness big time.
Don’t have anyone to hug right now? No? (I’m sorry to hear that. I would give
you a hug right now if I could.) But there’s an answer: neuroscience says you
should go get a massage.
The results are fairly clear that massage boosts your serotonin by as much as
30 percent. Massage also decreases stress hormones and raises dopamine
levels, which helps you create new good habits…  Massage reduces pain
because the oxytocin system activates painkilling endorphins.
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