Social scientists have shown in many studies for past few decades that caring touch can have good effects in several different mental and physical problems. Consider this case: a doctor hugged his patient who survived a complicated surgery of six hours; when the patient regained his consciousness after surgery, the doctor felt so happy, he gave the patient a gentle hug.   

A hug is a universal and widely accepted ways to show our affection and love. It communicates many emotions that words fail to express. There are different types of hugs that express different emotions. When you feel low, angry, distressed, or sad, a quick squeeze or hug is all you need to lift your mood.

Hugging helps lower our stress throughout the day. Hugging a person is one of the most natural and emotional physical touches one can have with others. It gives us a sense of security and makes us feel loved and cared for. There are many different types of hugs one can coddle in; few are romantic while others are just friendly, they are emotional and supportive. For example, a side hug is friendly; hugging from behind portrays intimacy; in a friendly hug two people engage in arm-hug; hugging around the waist is romantic; a bear hug is for warmth; one-sided hug shows caring.  And there are many unseen benefits of hugging; the biggest is boosting of dopamine hormone which is ‘feel good’ hormone and in case of loving hug, oxytocin hormone boosts feeling of love.

Research shows that hugs can be healthy. Hugs cause a decrease in the release of cortisol, a stress hormone, and another research indicates that hugs decrease our blood pressure and heart rate in stressful situations. The stress-reducing effects of hugging keeps us healthier. In a study of over 400 adults, researchers found that hugging reduces the percentage of falling sick. From childhood to old age people who are hugged by near and dear ones stay healthy.

According to one study, it takes merely 7 seconds of a hug for our brain to signal the release of oxytocin hormone that is associated with, amongst other things, increased levels of trust, calmness, and creativity. Hugging often creates a feeling of calmness and relaxation. That’s because of oxytocin which is sometimes called the “cuddle hormone.” Oxytocin is released when people or pets snuggle up or bond socially. This release can have a domino effect throughout the body and has been found to reduce inflammation, improve wound healing, it lessens cravings for drugs, alcohol, and sweets and lowers heart rate and stress. Domino effect is a situation in which one event causes a series of related events, one following another.

Getting a firm, reassuring hug before or during a stressful event, such as waiting to receive the results of a medical test, waiting for an examination result, waiting to receive a near and dear one at station, can help you stay calm because your oxytocin levels remain elevated.  A hug a day may, in fact, keep the doctor away.

They make us happier. An assuring hug is much better than gulping anti-depressants. Hugging triggers the release of serotonin in the brain to create happiness and ease sadness.  They Help deepen our relationships. As human, we automatically want to hug those we know are in pain. In many ways, hugs are a form of meditation. They allow us to be present in the moment, to let go and flow with the energy of the embrace. It’s easy to forget how meaningful a hug can be, but it can truly deepen your connection with another person. Hugs convey, in a nonverbal way, an understanding of each other.

Humans and dogs have been together since primitive times, and both have a primal need for physical touch. All monkeys, from chimpanzees to Japanese macaques (snow monkeys) to humans, are hard-wired to console others and transmit affection by hugging. Even a reptile, a hen, and a fish look enjoy some human affection. Bears, koalas, deer, elephant, and even birds such as parrots, crows, pigeons, sparrows, peacocks love human touch. Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose showed that plants can experience sensations and feel pleasure and pain. Like birds and animals, plants also respond to human touch.  

Don’t underestimate the healing power of a hug. Just as we exercise to stay in shape and diet to stay healthy, we should make the effort to stay connected to the people. We can never get enough hugs. They are priceless gifts of unconditional love because a hug communicates a thousand words.

An emotion is our individual manner of putting meaningful labels on experiences; we do it each moment and we do it automatically. Emotions are experienced as a sense of pressure directly tied to a physical sensation in the body; for example anger signals urgency to fight, to abuse verbally or physically someone who has angered you. Anger is usually tied to the sensation of heat in the face and preparedness in the limbs. Anger tends to hold the meaning that we need to oppose a foe. Similarly, joy is a sense of urgency to immerse yourself in the goodness around you. Joy is usually felt as pleasant warmth across the whole chest, neck, and midsection. Joy tells us to pay attention so that we can remember to have this same experience again. We urge in different ways to allow the joy to continue.

Emotions have a long evolutionary history; they are adaptive, but they have evolved over time in order to increase our reproductive fitness. Emotion plays an important role in issues of survival, and it involves both cognition and behavior. Emotions serve an adaptive role in our lives by motivating us to act quickly and take actions that will maximize our chances of survival and success. Our emotions have a major influence on the decisions we make, from what we decide to have for breakfast/lunch/dinner to which candidates we choose to vote for in political elections.

Naturalist Charles Darwin believed that emotions are alterations that allow both humans and animals to survive and reproduce. When we are angry, we try to confront the source of our irritation. When we experience fear, we are likely to flee the threat. When we feel romantic, we go to seek out a mate and reproduce.

When we think about our emotions, we tend to think of them solely as states of feeling. Psychologist Robert Plutchik stated that there are eight basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. Plutchik created the wheel of emotions, which illustrates the various relationships among the emotions.

Aristotle gave a systematic, practical account of the emotions and how they affect ethical actions and choices, which is the base of ethical theory. Aristotle stated that there is a special, interactive and reciprocal communication between the body and the mind (cognition). At the very core of the theory of emotions he comes up with is the idea that there are two types of emotion-based actions that go along with two basic emotion types: 1) some emotionally charged actions are much more cognitive than others and therefore we can say these actions are voluntary 2) some emotionally charged actions are so fast and intense that stopping them is almost impossible and therefore these actions are counter-voluntary.

Emotional intelligence is our ability to understand and manage emotions, has been shown to play an important role in decision-making. EI is also about recognizing and respecting other’s emotions. Emotional balance is the ability of the mind and body to maintain stability and flexibility in times of crisis in our life. Emotional balance promotes physical health, and is a precondition for our personal well-being and growth. What we experience as our mind is made up of our thoughts and emotions, and our happiness depends on us remaining in a balanced mental/emotional state. We all experience negative thoughts and emotions from time to time but if we stay in any state for too long we lose the ability to return to our balanced, neutral position which is called equanimity.

We basically find ourselves locked in number of negative states; such as anger, fear, worry, dissociation, self-sabotage or depression; agitation, impulsivity, anxiety, panic attacks and sleep trouble, lack of drive and motivation, or poor concentration. These stuck emotions run just below the level of realization, elusive yet often overpowering. These uncomfortable emotions can dominate our thinking process and give rise to incongruous reactions that impair our ability to be at our best.

Emotional balance facilitates our body and mind’s well-being by practicing emotional regulation and distress tolerance. Emotional regulation relates to identifying the emotions that are being felt in the moment, and observing them without being overwhelmed by them. Emotional regulation skills include self-soothing activities that help to reduce emotional intensity and provide a calming effect. It comes with meditation, calculated deep breathing, long walks, meeting friends regularly, taking short breaks from work and going for travels, yoga, listening to music you enjoy, progressive muscle relaxation, hiking, fishing, nurturing a hobby such as gardening, reading something pleasurable, spiritual practice, singing a favorite song, exercising, visualizing a comforting/relaxing image, journaling, etc.

You can practice some of these steps for striking the emotional balance:

Honor your emotion: A crucial reality of our life is to learn to acknowledge and express a full range of emotions; they can be negative or positive. The first step of balancing emotion is to honor an emotion; to realize the emotion and let go of it, if it’s negative. The fact is anger and sadness are an important part of life, and new research shows that experiencing and accepting such emotions are vital to our mental health. Acknowledging the complexity of life is in particular fruitful path to psychological well-being, https://www.urgentway.com/xanax-buy-now/.

Respond, don’t react: we gain emotional balance when we respond instead of reacting. It’s a fact that much of our lives we spend in reaction to others and to events around us. The problem is that these reactions are not always the best course of action, and as a result, they can make others unhappy, make things worse for us, and make the situation worse. The truth is we often react without thinking.

Have true compassion for your authentic self: Being authentic means that you act in ways that show your true self and how you feel. Rather than showing people only a particular side of yourself for impressing them. Instead, you express your whole self genuinely. That means to succeed in being authentic; you first need to know who your true self actually is.

Move on instead of getting stuck: It’s always better to get clarity about what is bothering you? Why? Whether you want to release the feeling or not? Honor the sadness, the mellowness, the opportunity to let your energy recede and flow and settle in a new way is the highest level of self-care. It is nice to just feel and not get attached to the thoughts. Do not force yourself to be happy or think positive, but just be; after a while move on.

Have gratitude for your existence: Do you feel thankful? It is truly a worthy and noble pursuit. Certainly, expressing thanks to all those who cross your path each day is a start. Being aware of those less fortunate than you, can also help you appreciate your blessings. Feeling of gratitude is most beneficial to balance your emotions. It also helps in balancing your life. To truly master gratitude, you must become grateful for it all. This means being grateful for the ups, the downs and the in-between. It means appreciating when times are easy, but also when times are hard.

Practice equanimity: It refers to a mind that is at peace even when you are stressful and in unpleasant experiences. It refers to one’s ability to stay relaxed and centered, in the midst of any situation. Equanimity is an acceptance of what is, the recognition of the truth of the moment. I think accepting reality is the beginning of balancing of emotions.

Anger is a natural emotion. Everybody experiences it for variety of reasons. It is an emotional response to real or imaginable feeling. Anger can be an active or a passive emotion. A person lashes out verbally and sometimes physically also when the emotion is active. In case of passive anger, it reacts by silently sulking, being quiet, eating less, remaining aloof or becoming unreceptive etc. Each person has a different pattern of reacting to anger within him/her.

Hanging on to bitterness or resentment is not at all good. It is always better to resolve issues which upset us. All of us get angry, and sometimes our anger gets out of hand. We say and do things that we later regret. Anger can be expressed in many ways; different types of anger affect people differently and can manifest to produce different actions and signs of anger.  The most common signs of anger are both verbal and non-verbal. But, people who hold back resentment sooner or later become unwell.

How is Anger expressed?

It can be clear that somebody is angry from what they say or how they say it, you can see it from their tone of voice.  Anger is expressed through body language and other non-verbal cues: an angry person’s face becomes red, the nostrils fluffs up, he/she stares straight into face, frowns, and sometimes clenches fists.  Some people are very good at internalising their anger and it may be difficult to notice any physical signs.  However, it is better to resolve anger at the earliest.

I look at anger as one of the best tools that helps us read and respond to upsetting social or personal situations. Many researchers have responded that anger increases optimism and creativity within us. One specific research suggests that expressing anger can lead to more successful negotiations in life or on the job. In fact, suppressing anger can actually hurt you. Dr. Ernest Harburg and his team at the University Of Michigan School Of Public Health spent several decades tracking the same adults in a longitudinal study of anger. They found that men and women who hid the anger they felt in response to an unjust attack subsequently found themselves more likely to get bronchitis and heart attacks, and were more likely to die earlier than peers who let their anger be known when other people were annoying.

Aristotle said that anger can be good for you because it’s designed to protect us, our relationships and our way of seeing the world. In the everlasting battle between right and wrong, the bodily effects of anger are meant to tell us that something is wrong.

Do you know that the earlier US President Bill Clinton was once the leader of the free world, but this iconic politician came from humble beginnings? As a junior high schooler, he was picked on insistently for being a “fat band boy” with bad taste in clothes. Their taunting culminated in an incident at a junior high dance: one older student teased Clinton about his carpenter’s jeans, and even hit Clinton in the jaw. But Clinton did not give the bully what he wanted, choosing to stand his ground rather than fight back or back down. Clinton shares in his memoir, My Life, “I had learned that I could take a hit and that there’s more than one way to stand against aggression.” He survived the incident, and his status as a band geek paid off, with Clinton becoming a talented and celebrated saxophone player in addition to his life in public service.

How does Anger help?

Anger is motivational force: You sometimes hear people talking about using anger as a motivating force by turning their anger into positive energy. In fact anger itself is a kind of positive energy and a powerful motivating force. Research has shown that anger can make us push on towards our goals in the face of problems and barriers. Anger tells us not to stop or limit ourselves.

Anger helps in protecting: When you or somebody closer to you is in danger your mind automatically kicks into finding solutions immediately. You don’t have time to stop and ponder a course of action when one of your near and dear is in some serious problem. Anger short cuts our thinking brain to allow us to act quickly. This is nature’s way of protecting your family from harm.

Anger enhances leadership skill: When you appear to be angry and carry on an intense conversation or presentation, you ignite new ideas, thoughts and feelings. Your intensity allows you to call the shots. Steve Jobs is famous for his anger, although he hardly controlled it.

Anger makes a person practical: When you are angry, your attention is laser-focused on the wrong issue. That gives you great problem-solving skills, and the ability to focus on the solution. All great leaders like M.K.Gandhi, Nelson Mandela used their anger for finding solutions to their nation’s problems.

Anger teaches: Our anger management styles are learned from our own parents. If Mom was a yeller, we may follow her example, even if we vowed never to yell at our kids. Fortunately, if you learned one anger expression style you can learn another. Disconnect the idea that feeling angry is bad. That is natural and unavoidable but what you do with those hot emotions is completely under your control; one needs to practice the art of using anger for benefit. Allow yourself to find new ways to cope with daily parenting hassles by taking a class or reading a book on anger management, or see a counsellor.

There are so many people around us who have used anger as a motivating force by turning anger into positive energy. The fact is that anger itself is a kind of positive energy and a powerful motivating force. Anger helps us in pushing our goals in the face of problems and barriers. The caution around anger is to manage it positively: it should not be overused, or used with everyone.

When the South African actress Charlize Theron was only 15 years old, she witnessed her mother shoot her alcoholic and aggressive father out of self-defence. But instead of letting the trauma define her future, she looked to her mother’s protective example of strength and worked to build an amazing sense of confidence of her own. She continued to pursue her acting career, and she ultimately became the first South African actress to win an Academy Award. In an ABC News Interview with Diana Sawyer, Charlize Theron said she views that experience as a tattoo on her heart. “It’s a part of me, but it doesn’t rule my life,” she said.

The expression of authentic anger can be entirely appropriate with certain people in certain situations. The question is how you do that without letting it go too far. One can train the mind to control anger wherever possible and learn the tactics of the right way to get mad.