Without physical affection, man is as good as dead

[srikant]

I love how Steve is so open about his life. One of the things ,he often mentions is the "heart energy" or something like that, which is felt intensely when one deeply hugs someone or cuddles someone. Internet hugs are all fine, but the body needs a deep nourishment in the form of physical love.

I have discovered a wonderful thing in life. If you are afraid of getting physically affectionate with a person, you dont really love him/her. In fact, the more you love the person, the more touchy feely you would want to be with him/her. But social conceptions mar our natural desire to be affectionate with anyone, even one's own mother. Imagine a grown up man sleeping with his mother. Omg!!!!. That is so freaky!!!!.

If you look at animals, cats for instance. They are cuddly with everyone- friends, siblings , parents all of them. Over past few months, i have tried risking being the first one to hug and feeling other persons's body for warmth. At first , i was afraid of not being hugged back or shunned. But its miraculous ,how i have been reciprocated 80% of the time. I then discovered something else. That people are really waiting for someone to give them a deep hug, to touch them, to stroke their hair, to give them kisses on cheeks. Its all so naturally built into every person. I realized i was unnecessary being afraid and shy.

And i am finding that opening up to and enjoying "love", my health and happiness levels have improved. And when i am feeling alone, i can go and hug the ♥♥♥♥ out of my dear one. . I dont need to resolve problems in my head as i used to do before .

I love that i am a physical affection whore. It makes my life so much more rewarding that i have lovely people to seduce around me .

[Focus Driblet]

Yeah, I've felt for a while now that I miss physical affection. I can do without sex, but I feel that a hug or cuddle is sorely needed sometimes! Sadly I don't really do that with my girl friends because I fear that it will be interpreted as a sexual advance, since I'm a guy (and that has a history of complicating friendships for many people. Not that I would personally know, though). I guess I just have to find a way for 'advances' like that to feel natural. It would be nice to be able to be affectionate with people

[Agota]

I was thinking a lot about generating warmth/love yourself as opposed to trying to get it from other people in the form of approval, understanding, emotional connection etc. I was actually wondering how to replace physical affection when you're single and you don't have many close friends (I sound sad now )..

[Agota]

Oh, and I think it was in Zeitgeist that scientists said that for newborn, human touch is not a want it's a need, because if they get everything but nobody touches them, they die..

[srikant]

Originally Posted by Agota

I was thinking a lot about generating warmth/love yourself as opposed to trying to get it from other people in the form of approval, understanding, emotional connection etc. I was actually wondering how to replace physical affection when you're single and you don't have many close friends (I sound sad now )..

Believe me , i have tried and dont think of it to be possible. Unless you are a Buddha ,i guess. We humans are sensitive children of god and need other people's love to feel happy and furthermore, if we miss out on hugging/loving our close ones out of shyness. , we forget all the awesomeness in life there is !