Sitting in a café last week and glancing at the occupants at surrounding tables, I was struck by the number of people looking at their phones rather than interacting with their fellow occupants.
It reminded me of an article I read observing behaviour of people at an airport. It was written by Tiffany Field, a researcher who is considered a leading authority on touch and touch therapy with 40 years of experience in the field. She stated in the past she would have seen people hugging and napping on each other, but was surprised to see that people were now looking their phones instead of touching or speaking. This article predated the risk of infection from COVID-19.
There are numerous studies reporting the benefits of touch for physical and mental wellbeing. It’s believed that when you’re touched, pressure receptors are stimulated which in turn increase the activity of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is responsible for a variety of internal organ functions, including; digestion, heart rate, breathing, cardiovascular activity and reflex actions like coughing, swallowing and sneezing. Read More…