{"id":929,"date":"2017-01-24T22:48:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com?p=929"},"modified":"2018-02-19T19:48:56","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T19:48:56","slug":"why-we-hug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/why-we-hug\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Hug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elephants do it. Monkeys do it. And we should all be doing it more often. Before your mind races off with you, we are talking about HUGGING here! Have you ever just felt the need for a hug and wondered why that is? Did you know that all mammals hug? \u00a0There\u2019s actually a good reason for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.comwp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Elephants-hugging.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-931\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.comwp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Elephants-hugging.jpg\" alt=\"elephants-hugging\" width=\"548\" height=\"470\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Just stop for a minute and think about what we learn from a hug\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a single embrace we can gauge through touch if someone is angry, distant, or really into us. \u00a0A hug shows us that we trust the other person enough to touch them. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hugging releases oxytocin. This is the \u201cfeel good\u201d chemical of the brain. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide (a signaling molecule produced by neurons) that promotes feelings of devotion and trust. In an interview with NPR, Matt Hertenstein \u2014 a psychologist at DePauw University \u2014 \u00a0said on the release of oxytocin, \u201cIt really lays the biological foundation and structure for connecting to other people.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hugging reduces stress. Cortisol levels drop when hugged and when this happens the feel-good chemicals rise. \u00a0And when dopamine and serotonin rise, a person feels better.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hugging can help lower blood pressure. Have you ever reached out to someone who is very upset? This can help that angry moment melt, deeper breathing occurs, and that anger isn\u2019t so hot anymore. Why? Because our skin receptors send messages to the vagus nerve resulting in the lowering of heart rate and pressure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quite simply, if you want to feel better, HUG MORE! Hug when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> need to feel better and when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">someone else<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> needs a boost. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s biological. It\u2019s magical.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.comwp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MonkeysHugging.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-932\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.comwp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MonkeysHugging.jpg\" alt=\"monkeyshugging\" width=\"580\" height=\"655\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elephants do it. Monkeys do it. And we should all be doing it more often. Before your mind races off with you, we are talking about HUGGING here! Have you ever just felt the need for a hug and wondered why that is? Did you know that all mammals hug? \u00a0There\u2019s actually a good reason [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[25,37],"tags":[61],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1350,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/1350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indigodragoncenter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}