Touchy Subject

Some of us are uncomfortable getting ‘touchy feely,’ but it’s vital for our health, wellness and happiness, say the world’s leading neuroscientists

- Anne Mullens

Every two or three months, Thyago Ohana goes out on the busy streets of Vienna with a big smile and a sign saying “Free Hugs.” The handsome Brazilian, who works in international trade at India’s Vienna embassy, chooses a popular locale, like the historic shopping street Kaerntner Strasse. There he opens his arms to anyone who wants a hearty embrace.

He does it because once, back in 2012, when he was feeling very stressed and anxious during a visit to Paris, a stranger gave him a free hug. He’s never forgotten how it filled him with unexpected calm and joy.

For those who take up his offer, getting a hug makes them laugh and smile. But sometimes it does more, as when an elderly woman in a tour group stopped and watched him. The group moved on, but she asked, “Can I have a hug?”

“Of course you can!” said Ohana who wrapped his arms around her.

When they broke their embrace, she kept holding onto his shoulders and looked into his eyes. “Thank you,” she said. “I can’t remember the last time I was hugged this way.”

It’s a memory that still makes Thyago emotional. “It was a really powerful moment of human connection. It is why I keep doing it.”

Of our five senses, our sense of touch is the one we are most apt to take for granted and yet the one we can least do without.

“A child can be born blind or deaf and they will grow up just fine, with no cognitive impairments,” says US neuroscientist David J. Linden, author of Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind. “Yet if an infant is deprived of loving social touch for the first two years of life, then all sorts of disasters unfold.”