Why do people hug?

[BlackWolf]

I was thinking about it today. Why DO people hug? Do people hug as a subconscious way to really feel the others energy? People hug for friendship and love but why?

I am speaking in terms of everyone in every faith. Why do people feel the physical need to hug when they see someone they haven't seen in a long time or to comfort a child or to say goodbye.

Kinda interesting when you think about it.

[Humm]

It is an expression of trust, acceptance, openness, and sharing - a shared moment of mutual appreciation and vulnerability.

Truly, a good hug is a beautiful thing. :smile:

[SpiritCarrier]

There have been many studies done on hugging and the response to the recipent. To a woman, a hug can transfer her perfume to the man she is with and gather his aftershave on her dress or skin. A man may like a hug to feel what is beneath the dress along the breast area. *blushes*

Most of the studies done about hugging have show that birds and other animals in the animal kingdom have similar ways of showing affection. The study that I read shows that a hug can reduce stress, increase blood flow which in turn increases oxygen and gives a person an overall feeling of wellbeing.

There are a number of reason a person may offer a hug to another but most of them include a way to show affection and comfort. Reassurance also.

So while there are so many reasons to hug in the context of energy exchange physical contact is not necessary to have energy exhanges.

I want to keep hugging in my mind and heart where it has always been, a honorable place, a sentiment I share with those I wish to share an affectionate moment with.

[Squatchit]

I love this question. Because of the synchronicity. :smile:

I watched QI yesterday and apparently there is a 3-second acceptance or allowance of a hug (generally speaking). More than 3 seconds and one becomes very embarrassed and moves away. Starts patting each other on the back and coughing politely.

Hugs are regenerative, healthy and a big show of love (ime).

I'm a huge hugger and will quite happily hug until the other person gets embarrassed. Luckily I have friends who hug for ages and enjoy it just as much. :smile:

The more I hug someone, the more I get into it and the more I feel and the more I give and the more I receive and the more I relax and the more it makes me smile and the more I send healing and the more I heal and so on. It's a massive two-way thing when you find a hugger who is into hugging as much as you are....:hug3:

[BlueSky]

Did you ever have one of those hugs that cannot be matched....in a dream?
I have, a couple of times.
Hugs are awesome but dream hugs are out of this world!
An elderly woman I cared for as a volunteer at hospice came to me in a dream and gave me the most amazing dream hug to say goodbye (in waking life she could not speak or do much of anything except hold my hand and smile).
Later that morning I received a phone call saying that she had passed!
James

[ellespirit]

I had an inkling that someone would think it was a way of sucking in someone's postive energy.

I hug because i'm affectionate, I love it, it feels great and you can never hug enough! I'm only sorry my kids are to hold to have huge mummy hugs.

[Silver]

Bonding is the quickest answer......I can't imagine anyone who hasn't seen the 'scientific experiment' done ages ago with a baby monkey (or monkeys?) with the wire 'substitute mother' and the substitute wire mother with a cloth over it) ~ and of course the Romanian orphanage story ~ those young who had no access to physical affection/closenest failed to thrive, it does as much damage as too much attention (unwanted, sexual, physical abuses).

[Elena]

I love to hug my daughter and she knowes it because she will come to me ang give me a hug and at times it makes my whole day.

[daisy]

Maybe by hugging we are intermingling auras (this would explain why some folks just don't 'take' to physical hugging, like myself I feel 'intruded' on) and the 'huggers' spirits are closer ? Just musing aloud

[daisy]

Hugs are awesome but dream hugs are out of this world!
NOthing like it is there, imo because there's no 'body' to get in the way, it's a true spirit hug a merging of energies

[Gracey]

for me its a personal way to show you care. my twins give me at least 50 hugs a day. i love them and the hugs!

[iolite]

There is a video that I saw on the news awhile back. It was a kitten having a nightmare and his mom grabbed him and pulled him close and went back to sleep. It was cute!

My daughter is a hugger. There'll be some days where she'll ask me 4 or 5 times for a hug. Those days, it's for reassurance. She'll be freaking out about some homework or assignment and need a hug.

Other days, she's just exuberant and bubbly and will bestow hugs of affection. She's already has one teacher that will only let her hug if she does it gently. She tends to broadside you almost like a tackle and then squeeze tight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Vw4KVoEVcr0

[Elena]

for me its a personal way to show you care. my twins give me at least 50 hugs a day. i love them and the hugs!


Wow Twins that is awesom but I could never do it. I have all the respect for you and little envy because that is double the love and double the trouble lol xoxoxoxo

[Gracey]

thanks Elena,

if you noticed my avatar, those are my little guys a year or so ago. they fell asleep that way, one giving the other a warm long hug.

[blackraven]

I was thinking about it today. Why DO people hug? Do people hug as a subconscious way to really feel the others energy? People hug for friendship and love but why?

I am speaking in terms of everyone in every faith. Why do people feel the physical need to hug when they see someone they haven't seen in a long time or to comfort a child or to say goodbye.

Kinda interesting when you think about it.

BlackWolf - Hugs are an interesting concept. It all depends on who you are engaged in a hug with I suppose. When I hug my spouse, even though I'm saying, "I love you," I generally am looking to be held and to feel all is well in my world, safe. When I hug my son after not seeing him for several weeks I am expressing joy and happiness in seeing him, but I also am embracing him to let him know he is loved and when he is hugged by me he has the kind of unconditional love that only a mother can give. I hug him when he comes in the door and before he goes out the door. When I hug my parents it's an expressing of respect for raising me and for loving me. Then when I hug a sibling it's a way of saying, "we have a connection."

On a subconscious level I think our souls desire to get close to other souls so that our auras can interact with other's auras. It's like a rechargeable battery getting charged. We connect with others through their energy fields. That's what hugging is - energy fields touching.

Blackraven

[Elena]

thanks Elena,

if you noticed my avatar, those are my little guys a year or so ago. they fell asleep that way, one giving the other a warm long hug.

Now that is love to allow someone to sleep on top of you. Give them hugs and kisses from me and tell them I said reach for the stars:hug:

[BlackWolf]

I saw that video of the Momma and the Kitten actually. Very cool.

I know that we do hug for affection but I am thinking it has more to do with each others energy and maybe even aura mingling as another member had posted on the last page.

I am a HUGE hugger. I love hugs and I am glad my 3 y/o daughter shares that same trait with me. My immediate family just doesn't give hugs, it is awkward for them and even makes me uncomfortable because of they're uncomfortable. My ex husband wasn't a hugger either. It's sad when someone is a hugger and everyone around them isnt, so I am glad my daughter is a hugger. She actually just came over to me and hugged me just now and walked away, lol.

[Bluegreen]

People generally do not get touched enough. I have asked pedicurists and people who practise reflexology and they tell me that they have had clients who started to cry at the first touch.

So, hugging is a wonderful thing and one cannot hug enough.

To quote Joan Grant (again :D ):

The role of the body...is to increase the range and quality of sensory perception, thereby increasing the field of choice and the capacity to choose benignly. The part the body plays in the evolution of the individual is no less important than the part played by other components of the personality, for no component can develop at the expense of another.

Having in my time fallen prey to the delusion that "the great spirit burns the body to the rind," and having therefore wasted a lot of energy in futile asceticism, I know that it is exceedingly misguided to neglect the task of cultivating the five senses. From Many lifetimes.

[Eudaimonist]

I was thinking about it today. Why DO people hug?

My view: hugs produce oxytocin, a brain chemical that reduces anxiety and feels good.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[midnightstar]

For me, it depends what mood I'm in as to how comfortable I am hugging someone or having someone hug me :smile:

[BlackWolf]

You make a really good point beauty. I suppose if someone is in need of hugging their vibrations are low and someone with higher vibrations can give a hug. So, that way the person with lower vibrations just got their raised??

[Golden28]

If i go to hug someone its because i care about there fealings and im trying to Re-assure them and help them cope through a tough time, or im hugging them because i have fealings for them which could then i guess lead into a slow kiss and from there.. yea you see where im going with this i'll stop there :) lol