Touch Me Babe

Touch is the first of the senses to develop in the human infant, and it remains perhaps the most emotionally central throughout our lives. A child who has a steady caretaker will be emotionally stronger than a child who is without affection for long periods. Studies have shown that even short bursts of touch — as little as fifteen minutes in the evening, not only enhance spiritual growth and connection in children, but also lead to emotional, physical, and cognitive improvements in adults when the body talks to the brain, and the brain to the body.

The more we learn about the benefits of touch, the more we realize just how central it is in every aspect of our lives. It’s no surprise that from the womb into old age a single touch can affect us in multiple, powerful ways, yet the positive implications of research have yet to make it out of the lab to permeate our thinking. Even as the evidence increases, we continue to undervalue touch.

Many adults, as well as children, spend most of their days in a touch-free zone. We don’t mind getting the benefits of touch, but we seem to fear embracing it wholeheartedly, either because we think it has dangerous repercussions, in the case of young children, or it’s just unrehearsed “touchy-feely” in the case of adults. Why must we feel compelled to wait for a shift in the social-political attitude toward touch? Hopefully, in a very short while, touch will become ubiquitous along with the other social norms of the past that seem to have disappeared from being morally acceptable.

There is enormous progress, potential, and excitement that lies deep within the walls of human kindness and connection. Unfortunately, as it were, we are just beginning to “scratch the surface.”

Touch is the first and most powerful language we speak, and although time is everlasting, people you love are not, so let fate, destiny, and what is written in the stars, keep you in touch with the people whose love you cherish the most. I can only hope that my words will help each of us reach out and regain the link that’s responsible for maintaining successful relationships and fluency in our first language.

Our ability to communicate nonverbally teaches us that without touch, the newborn child and the child that lives within will surely linger along a path toward a slow and troublesome loss of intention. 

Reach out and touch me whenever you can.