In this episode Sherry talks about the science of touch.  How it contributes to your mental well being and the well being of those around you. Also discussing the power of giving/receiving emotional comfort through touch.

Support ZenFounder

Sherry’s Webinar Signup

References:

Berkeley researcher Dacher Keltner on Touch

Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David Linden on The Science of Touching and Feeling at TEDx

Episode Transcript

Sherry:

Hey guys, I’m super excited to announce that I’m doing my first webinar. I am going to be talking with Corey Miller, who is the founder of Ithemes, and who was recently a guest on this podcast. I think episode 97. Corey is really interested in mental health. He talks openly about his own experiences of depression. He and I are going to lead an interactive discussion around the topics we talk often about on this podcast. About mental health wellness, how to stay connected to yourself, to your family members, and we are doing this on Tuesday, February 7 at noon central. We will put a link in the show notes for you to register for this free webinar.

 

Another way to keep in touch with some of the things that Rob and I are doing right now, is to join the ZenFounder mailing list. We do not send a lot of email, I promise. It’s a great way to keep in touch with place that we’re speaking or different activities or events, like this webinar, that we might be involved in that you might be interested in checking out.

 

Sherry:

So I’m alone today on the podcast. I confess, I did a little bit of click bait on this episode, because the topic that I want to talk about is touch. I’m a little bit nervous everyone is going to say, “Okay, she has totally gone too far. This is the epitome of touchy feely and we’re no longer interested and we’re no longer gonna listen.” But, I promise that some of the content that I’m gonna talk about in the podcast today is super incredibly important to your own mental health and well being, as well as to the mental health and wellbeing of people around you.

 

So, please hang in there for my one sided conversation about the importance of touch as a wellness superpower. I started thinking about this over the last weekend. Those who listen to the podcast know that we are living in Minneapolis and it’s been cold and we’ve been inside a lot. Our youngest son, who’s six, was just really having a hard time with, I think, how little exercise he was getting and how little rough and tumble play he was getting. It’s been so cold they’ve kept the kids in at recess. So he’s been drawing at recess, which is fabulous, but this is a kid that needs to just move around.

 

So, on Sunday, I spent probably 45 minutes, maybe an hour, just tickling him and wrestling with him and throwing him up in the air, and just doing this big body play that involved a lot of touch. Over the course of that playtime, I could just feel his little body calming down. Almost like he’d been carrying a lot of tension and this was exactly the kind of play and contact with me that he needed, in order to be a