When was the last time you shook someone’s hand? What about a high-five or even a pat on the back? The thirst for some touch action is real and it’s driving us nuts. But with some peoplesayingwe shouldn’t even hug a loved one until a vaccine is made, it might be a little bit before we can get some skin-to-skin action. So to curb those cravings, we’re just going to have to get creative.
- Virtual Hug. Psychotherapist Lucy Beresford knows a‘virtual hug’ “may sound weird” but she also knows they’re good “precisely because they are so hilarious.” To pull one off on your next Zoom chat all you have to do is start hugging yourself and then say something like “this is for you.” If they do it back, you’ve successfully pulled off a virtual hug. The physical action of it might not make you feel better but laughing at how silly you all look on the screen will.
- Get Outside.You can’t touch people, but you can still get your hands all over Mother Nature, and psychologist Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell highly recommends it.Just not in those words of course.She says “any time in nature helps to soothe us and connect us to something bigger than ourselves. This reduces symptoms of depression, anxiety, and isolation.”
- Self-Sooth. Beresford also recommends you “take time to massage in some moisturizer or body lotion into your own skin [and] to adore your own body.” The whole idea is to mimic the grounding feeling that touching other people gives us. And your hands are probably dry AF from all the hand sanitizer anyways so what do you have to lose?
Source:HuffPost