THE REAL FEEL
It’s all touching stuff, but what happens when you’re told to keep your hands to yourself? If you ever tried to self-tickle as a child, you’ll know it doesn’t work. That’s thanks to a process called ‘sensorimotor predictions’ – your brain can’t relax and enjoy the touch because it’s preoccupied with predicting what you’re going to do next. The more predictable your touch, the less enjoyable it is – but that doesn’t mean self-touch is a lost cause. Professor Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute in Miami, conducted an online study on touch deprivation during the first lockdown. She found that 32% of respondents were using self-touch – in this case, yoga and stretching – to compensate for the lack of human touch. She followed it up with a study, yet to be published, on 260 people experiencing symptoms of touch deprivation, be that loneliness, sleep problems or anxiety. She found exercise to be the most positive thing you can do. ‘Any exercise, even walking, moves the skin, thereby stimulating its pressure receptors – which is the underlying mechanism for the beneficial effects of hugging or back rubbing,’ she explains. ‘It slows your nervous system (heart rate, blood pressure and brainwaves), which, in turn, reduces cortisol.’ While she’s never seen any data comparing the effects of self-massage with being massaged by someone else, she encourages anyone feeling lonely to engage in more self-touch. How you move your skin is important, though. Professor Field describes it as affectionate touch with enough pressure to actually move the skin – which is a sign that those pressure receptors are being stimulated and your nervous system is slowing down.
Meanwhile, Reading – who began running self-massage IGTV sessions during the first UK lockdown – believes self-soothing practices, such as breathwork or massaging in body lotion, are vital.
She suggests pressing the back of your hand against your forehead for a few seconds, or making a fist with each hand and pressing the base of each thumb on to your forehead, roughly above each eye, until you feel a sense of release. ‘Even holding your own hand can be soothing,’ she says. ‘Or massaging your abdomen in a circle from your right hip to your left hip, giving it your full attention.’
As we slowly inch towards a post-covid future, our experts agree that if there’s been one good thing about this touch hiatus, it’s that it’s been a muchneeded wake-up call as to the forgotten merits of physical contact. ‘We only seem to appreciate the value of a sense when we lose it,’ says Professor Mcglone. ‘How often do you hear a plea for a hug when someone needs sympathy or reassurance? What is the one thing that lonely people are less likely to experience? It’s touch. But up until now, many people didn’t credit how absolutely vital it is for mental and physical health.’ The danger, he warns, is that if you stop using this hardwired, touch-based reward system, the pleasure-seeking brain will simply try to find another way to get that reward. Alcohol, for one, is an easy substitute.
His hope is that when you return, once more, to hugging and handshakes, you do so knowing the full force of good that’s embedded in your fingertips. Countless observational studies prove that even a stranger’s touch can turn you into a more positive and generous person: a casual pat prompts people to leave bigger tips in a restaurant, rate sales assistants more positively and be more likely to give things away. Touch brings you support in the face of criticism, it makes you feel included instead of sidelined, reduces stress and naturally strengthens social bonds. It’s a touching thought: feeling less lonely really could be in your own hands.
Taking a considered approach to your social health is the message at the heart of our campaign, The Loneliness Remedy. For more advice on combatting feelings of isolation, visit womenshealthmag.com/uk
‘Until now, people didn’t credit how absolutely vital touch is for mental and physical health’