What if you gave yourself a big hug right now? It can seem silly, but new research shows that hugging yourself and other “self-soothing behaviors” can help reduce both physical and mental pain.
Touch plays an important role in our physical and mental health.
A lot of research into the psychology of touch has found that it can have a significant influence on establishing comfort, relaxation, and social bonding.
When social animals (such as monkeys, apes, and humans) are in isolation or denied any sense of touch, it can have deteriorating effects on their overall happiness and well-being.
Touch is not just a physical need for warmth, comfort, or pleasure, but also a psychological need that provides a sense of love, connectedness, and belonging.
When people have trouble satisfying this “need for touch” in their daily relationships, popular options include going for a massage from a professional, getting a body pillow or weighted blanket, or even a pet to cuddle with.
New psychology research shows we can also provide our own sense of touch through various “self-soothing behaviors” that reduce physical and mental pain.
In one new study published in the journal Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, researchers discovered that both hugs from others as well as self-soothing behaviors (such as placing a hand on your heart) were shown to reduce cortisol levels after a person had gone through a stressful experience.
Researchers theorized that these self-soothing gestures can be an important tool for reducing stress when social resources are limited.
The participants in the “self-soothing” condition were instructed to give themselves 20 seconds of self-touch to calm themselves. They were suggested a variety of options including: placing one/both hands on their heart, placing one/both hands on their belly, stroking their upper arms, or stroking their cheeks.
Different “self-soothing” gestures will work for different people, so participants were encouraged to choose the option they were the most comfortable with.
The lead authors of the study elaborate on their findings here:
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“Anthropologists and psychologists describe self-touching like caressing, rubbing, or scratching in primates and humans as a subconscious and rarely intentional response to high levels of negative affect or overall arousal as an attempt to reduce bodily or emotional tension. Yet, self-soothing touch is also an expression of self-compassion, which can be summarized as a kind and caring attitude towards the self in times of suffering that has been found to improve stress coping. If humans use self-touch as a subconscious mechanism to regulate their emotions, we propose that self-touch can also be used deliberately as a coping strategy against stress. Mechanisms from self-touching on stress coping could work via the same tactility as other-produced touching or via self-induced signals of safety.”
When you feel overwhelmed or stressed, self-touch can be used as a grounding technique to bring you into the present moment and calm down your nervous system.
In another study published in the scientific journal Pain, researchers found that crossing your hands over your body midline (mimicking the act of “hugging yourself”) can help reduce physical pain.
The study included 20 participants who willingly received small pulses of pain by an infrared laser. The researchers found that during trials when participants had their arms crossed in front of them (“hugging themselves”) they reported less pain. These self-reports were also corroborated with brain scans that showed smaller spikes of brain activity associated with pain and discomfort.
Neuroscientist Giandomenico Iannetti suspects that when we cross our arms in front of ourselves this confuses the brain when processing tactile stimuli – it redirects our attention from the source of pain to this other “tactile overload,” which reduces our experience of pain on a physical level.
Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal describes how she prefers the crossed arms position because it mimics the act of giving yourself a hug and expressing self-compassion and self-love. Directing good intentions toward yourself during the “self-soothing” behavior can help improve the overall experience.
Overall, hugging yourself and other self-soothing behaviors can be a valuable tool for boosting feelings of comfort and relaxation (but of course, we shouldn’t think of them as a long-term substitute for real-world relationships or acts of touch).
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