Touch Me

Touch. It's an incredibly important part of life. Touch in and of itself has been shown to have healing properties, for example with premature babies, and is wonderful for relieving stress.

It's so natural to want to touch and be touched and yet in today's world this can be fraught.

Teachers don't touch students. Men are very careful about touching women (less so vice versa?). Male doctors ensure that a female medico is present during some examinations of female patients.

In addition to these societal mores/niceties/restrictions is the fact that more and more of us live alone, so 'access' to touch is limited.

In Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, almost one in two people live alone. Statistics vary from country to country but it's fair to say that overall, worldwide, millions of people are starved of the simple pleasure of a long hug, a warm embrace.

So what to do? I suggest we follow the advice of the lovely late Australian singer Chrissy Amphlett and touch ourselves.

Where and how? Some suggested touch points follow.

- between the thumb and index finger: massaging this point is easy, even in public. I can attest to the headache-relieving capabilities of this action.

- between the eyes: when stressed, it's quite natural for us to place a hand on our forehead, or on our temples. Our bodies are asking us to massage that spot to relieve the stress of the moment. If you saw a man posed as per the accompanying photo, you would know that all is not well for him. Massage between the eyes in small, circular movements. It can help.

- between your big toe and second toe: this is similar in action and result to massaging between the thumb and index finger, though not as natural-looking when you're sitting at morning tea with colleagues!

As always, let us know if any of these suggestions work well for you. Here's to you stressing less.