Don't be touchy, get touched!

Kobido face massage at OSHO Multiversity

Once I was giving a session about the healing power of touch to a group of doctors. Initially I was apprehensive because I was daring to guide someone who knew so much about human body. I asked them to communicate with each other through their touch. First they felt awkward, then a little relaxed and later they started enjoying it. One of them was an elderly doctor who had been operated upon for cancer. She enjoyed being touched the most. She said she felt healed, accepted and even loved.

It is said that touching and non-sexual caressing have a great healing potential. It rejuvenates everybody and it is more effective with patients who are recuperating. A soft touch speaks more than a thousand words. In everyday interaction if you support your communication with a friendly touch on the back, on the arm , or a warm hug , your feeling will reach home better. But there is a taboo about touching. It is felt as an intrusion in other's private territory. Lots of fathers are reluctant to hug their sons for fear of how they will be perceived. But touch increases bonding with those around us. Touch can be therapeutic and it is highly recommended in disintegrating families of today.

"The most important thing is to have a frequent dose [of touch]," says Tiffany Field, Director of Touch Research Institute, Miami. "Like diet and exercise, if you don't have it daily, the effects will go away."

Osho says, "Touch is the first language we learn. The infant has yet to enter the complex world of words, so the first communication it receives through all senses is being cuddled by the mother. And that remains with all of us throughout our lives -- an undercurrent of nonverbal transmission of love and support. "
Kids who are deprived of loving touch in their infancy have emotional problems when they grow old. It is a less known fact that women love to be touched; and relationships will be much more satisfying if men take some time to caress and stroke their partners without sex on their minds. Stroking stimulates the brain which secrets a chemical called oxytocin, which also slows down the heart rate.

The lost paradise

In stroking women produce 20 per cent more oxytocin than normal. It is a calming hormone. Love is not expressed in words, love is transmitted through every pore of the body. A sincere and soulful touch can release so much tension. But people feel awkward touching somebody deeply ; and even the other person is on guard because touch has become synonymous with sex. Free the touch from lust and repressed sexuality. Touch and get touched, you will regain the lost paradise of love.