The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). To consult or setup a session with Bryan, you can e-mail [email protected].

Episode highlights:

Touch is one of our essential needs. 

It is important to be able to ask questions.

The Needs of the Heart by Chip Dodd 

• “The need for touch is one of the deepest forms of fulfillment that we have, and it can be one of the most abused needs that we possess.” (Page 27)

Touch is so vital that we cannot truly grow without it. When human beings are only cared for custodially, they can develop a condition called failure-to-thrive.

Babies and small children need to be “touched” appropriately and lovingly through:

• cuddling

Our needs never stop from birth to death.

Our toxic shame tells us that we “should” not have needs anymore. 

Examples: 

• “You’re 12 years old! Quit being such an attention seeker.”

Healthy touch creates a response called attunement. In attunement: 

• You become regulated within.

When you attune, you connect to others in a peaceful synchronized way, like night bugs singing a symphony.

Out of that connection, you are fueled to go attend to life’s tragedies.

This connection is called autonomy; it sets you free to make decisions, go take risks and possibly fail, because you have a safe place to go back to in order to be refueled. This place is called “home.”

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