Simple medicine available in the power of a hug
The healing power of a hug is not usually contested. As a matter of fact, there’s been a lot of research lately into the healing power of a hug, and the healing power of physical touch. It is common knowledge that cat or dog visits at nursing homes give the patients a certain peace, or a renewed zest. Search dogs not only search and rescue, but also give their human counterparts comfort through physical touch and the power of a hug with a furry, unconditional-loving dog.
Mother’s know the power of a hug with their young children who may have just had a boo-boo or a scary experience. Spouses know that physical contact keeps the marital bliss alive and well, and the power of a hug is easy to wield in the throes of our busy modern world.
According to a Huffington Post article from 2014, studies are being done on the power of a hug, and oxytocin is a key element not only in looking and feeling younger, but also in helping the body repair and perhaps even “be” younger. And here’s an article with 10 Reasons to Give More Hugs, the number one reason being an overall increase in that feel good hormone, oxytocin. The power of a hug is good for you, for your health, for your hormone levels, and for the people around you.
From a spiritual perspective, what might a hug be or do? At one level, the power of a hug is in the presentness of that hug. Everything stops, motion slows, connection happens, and there is one focal point of attention: the act of the embrace, the physical closeness, the shutting down (however brief) of mental constructs and finally, the awareness of heart faith experiences where doubts and misgivings are shed, and you and your heart open to loving potentials.
The meditative power of a hug
The shift of awareness back to presence that naturally occurs in the act of an embrace, as described above, sounds a lot like the shift from duality to non-duality which is sought after in a meditative state, after years of practice removing all thought forms from your mind. Only, instead of being a mental construct, this power of a hug meditative experience, is embodied…as in, it actually happens because you have a body, and it actually happens IN your body. Well, then, no wonder the power of a hug is so great! And absolutely we should all be hugging much more frequently.
The power of a hug described above is coming at it from a positive space. What if someone or something or some animal were super-stressed, or their very existence seemed threatened or they were just experiencing a momentary fear of varying proportions? Well, the power of a hug in that moment is even more super-charged. Think about it! A hug at that point in time in experience can reassure and reconnect a worried mind back to its physical container or body, through physical touch and connection with another…be that other a human or an animal, or any other living thing.
Calming the nightmare with the power of a hug
On today’s Grounded Relating Monday Music Challenge we will be taking a listen to the silence, allowing our eyes to see what cannot always be heard. Check out this YouTube video posted by dustiningle to get a silently inspiring visual of the power of a hug:
What an interesting visual! Obviously it’s a kitten, a baby cat, with a mother cat, who may be that particular kitten’s mother or not; we don’t know. In the video that mother-child relationship appears immaterial. What is material is that a need arose in the space, and the need was heard and satisfactorily met. A Mother Cat template was available for the Kitten Cat template, and the scenario played its way out perfectly, with both parties arriving in safety and comfort.
Being awake to the universal hug of life
To parse the video a little more finely, the kitten was obviously already in the arms of its Mother Cat, before, during and after the nightmare. There was never a loss of connection. Even when the kitten was obviously fretted by a nightmare, the connection was physically still available. Aren’t we all always connected to Source, God, Universe, the Great One that Always Is? Well in this case, perhaps the nightmare’s intensity was so great, it blocked that physical understanding and remembering from the kitten. Humans get blocked from that universal understanding; why not animals too? The kitten was obviously distressed, despite the fact that there actually was physical connection.
The Mother Cat is sleeping, no worries, no problems. She is holding the kitten, and sleeping. Connection through physical touch is inarguable. However, in a very Yes-AND! way the kitten still experienced angst, due to no fault of its own really. And did the Mother Cat leave the kitten in its nightmare? No. Would the kitten have eventually awakened from the nightmare on its own? Absolutely; but how much more compassionate, loving and noble, for the Mother Cat to scoop the baby kitten even tighter into her arms, and nestle that kitten even more firmly into safety, when the little kitten had lost its own way to the same firm belief in safety?
Could hugging open the universal portal of love?
How beautiful and what an extraordinary example of superb parenting skills! And what if that example of superb parenting skills were expanded to include constructs of self-love to the individual and inter-relational love to the world of inhabitants at-large? What if we held our own selves with the same certainty and safety that Mother Cat held the kitten, when our own fear and doubt rears its head? What if we held our friends and acquaintances with the same certainty and caring of that Mother Cat, when our friends’ fears and doubts become visible?
No lyrics today, just the silent wonder of the grace and power of a hug. As you meander with mystical wonder through your week, take the Grounded Relating Music Challenge and notice how you handle your personal nightmares, doubts and fears. If you met someone in their own personal nightmare this week, could you offer them the power of a hug, and by so doing, through physical touch bring those people out of their own nightmare and into their body, where reality is now? Let us know how your week goes in the comments below.
