Touch Me for Six Seconds, Please!

Hi again! Twenty-five years ago, when I directed Columbia University's health education program, and long before our current loneliness and mental health crisis, I created an initiative called Stressbusters to address students' #1 health complaint at the time, stress. Inspired by $1 per minute massage storefronts that were popular in the '90s, a Licensed Massage Therapist and I trained teams of students to give 5-minute back rubs for free at events we'd plan around campus. Then came program launch day, we had no idea how this new venture would go, but just a minute after the first back rubs began, something amazing happened.

It was like magic! There was this incredible feeling of calm and happiness and togetherness that overtook the space and that kept happening each time we held an event.

The "magic" is probably hormones—namely oxytocin. As science around touch developed, we learned that welcomed touch of all kinds, even light touch for as little as six seconds, sends a cascade of feel-good chemicals through our bodies that are associated with a sense of wellbeing, hope and happiness.

On episode 4 of The Chill Factory podcast, I talked with science and health journalist Sushma Subramanian who had just written a book called Skin Hunger: The Science and Meaning of Touch. At the start of our conversation, Sushma read this 45-second excerpt from the book's introduction—a call to action of sorts to touch one another more because tech, working from home and other factors are increasingly keeping us physically apart:

Since that first Stressbusters event at Columbia, we've given nearly half-a-million back rubs thanks to the program's expansion to other schools across the country. There are countless stories of lives impacted by Stressbusters, and this one in particular fills my heart with profound joy and pride:

After receiving a Stressbusters back rub, a first-year student began to cry. A staff person at the event asked her if she was okay. The student said,

"Yes, it felt great. I'm crying because that's the first time anyone has touched me since I hugged my mom goodbye four months ago after she brought me to campus."

Here's my full 20-minute conversation with Sushma about the science and importance of touch:

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I'd love to hear your suggestions and success stories around touch and stress relief. The more chill we share, the healthier the world will be, so please stock the comments area below and thanks for reading!

PS: Let's talk about how our chill factory of stress and anxiety reducers can help your colleagues, students, clients and you. We've got speaker sessions, chill apps customizable with your branding and resources, college mental health programs, courses that train you how to teach stress reduction techniques and much more. Message me here on LInkedIn or via?my website.