Hugging good for your health

Hugs are a great way to show someone you care about them. And research has shown they can cause a decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, strengthen our immune system and help lower blood pressure and heart rate when we’re stressed. Just the physical act of hugging can really connect us with people.

That’s the opinion of a psychologist in an article titled, “Can hugging be good for your health?” that ran in a Sunday newspaper insert.

I didn’t have to have a psychologist’s opinion to know that. Everybody knows that.

Hugs are good. Hugs are great. There are few things better than a hug from somebody you love. Or even only like, I think. Polite hugs from people you know but don’t necessarily love or even like don’t count, with some people. I don’t mind them — but I know people who get all antsy and scrunch up inside when someone they barely know — or even dislike — hugs them.

And that was one of the bad side effects of the pandemic. For more than a year, we didn’t hug or get hugged, even by those nearest and dearest. In fact, not only did we not hug, we didn’t even get close enough to think about it.

It was enough to make our insides dry up.

Growing up, in my immediate family there was just my little sister and me and our parents. I don’t remember specifically my daddy hugging me. But I remember snuggling in his lap when I had the tummy or headache, or a splinter or red ant bite, or when something went wrong, or when he read the funny papers to me every Sunday morning. I remember my mother spanking me but I don’t remember her hugging me, although I’m sure she did.

Daddy had 7 brothers and 4 sisters and they visited frequently. Again, I don’t remember hugs, specifically, but, again, I do remember sitting in the laps of all those uncles.

My husband was a big hugger and as we had one, two, three little boys, we lavished hugs and kisses on them. It was those same little boys — now older adults themselves — that I suffered most from loss of hugs during the pandemic.

When my grandson — an accomplished and enthusiastic hugger himself — brought the woman in his life to visit when we were advised it was safe to do so, I was thrilled when she turned out to be an excellent hugger also.

Close and frequent hugging isn’t for everybody though, no matter how much they like somebody. It just makes them uncomfortable. And that’s OK. But the article pointed out that hugging communicates that you are safe, loved and not alone. We don’t say those words to each other very often but hugging says them for us.

As for me, hug me once. Hug me twice. Or more.

Mary McClure lives in Lawton and writes a weekly column for The Lawton Constitution.