As I drive around to the various locations of my clients, I listen to a lot of radio and podcasts, and this week I came across two thought provoking pieces about the importance of human touch. Since reflexology is a touch therapy, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the importance of touch and why it appears to have such profound impact on the mind and body. At workshops, I sometimes share this poem which encapsulates so much of why we all need touch in order to thrive. In an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, neuroscientist David Linden, author of Touch, the Science of Hand Heart and Mind, explained that infants deprived of touch develop not only long term psychological problems but also physical deficiencies, and in this opinion piece on the BBC, Will Self worries about impact of the loss of human contact in our increasingly techno world.
Sadly, there seem to be more and more instances of touch become taboo, out of fear of it being misconstrued. Teachers, for example, are wary of putting an arm around a child’s shoulder or offering a hug to one in distress, in case the gesture is misinterpreted. Perhaps if we all better understood the fundamental importance of this vital sense we would all find a way to be more deeply in touch and find greater understanding of ourselves and others.
