If you’ve ever enjoyed one of our custom facials or a basalt hot stone massage, you know it may not be entirely true that you can’t buy happiness.
The science behind happiness.
Enjoying services like our custom facials or a basalt stone massage involve therapeutic touch. Touch is proven to have a lasting positive impact on psychological and physical well being.
Did you know that as Americans, we are part of a low-touch culture? Most of us need more connection (and no, we don’t mean via social media) to thrive as human beings than we get day-to-day. This is not an issue in some other countries, including Italy, France, and Puerto Rico, where people are much more likely to touch during social interaction.
Scientific research shows that physical touch helps to balance our emotions and ensure that we have all the feel-good hormones we need to manage stress.
Here’s what science tells us about the benefits of human touch:
- Premature babies cuddled frequently do much better than babies who are not (gaining weight and thriving)
- Infants who are held often develop stronger immune systems and are more resilient to stress
- When we have a long hug, a pat on the back, a handshake, hold hands with someone or enjoy an organic facial or therapeutic massage, the human touch helps our muscles relax and feel better; but it also activates the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain, the area connected to feelings of reward and compassion
- Therapeutic touch (like our soothing basalt hot stone massage) activates the vagus nerve, which in turn releases oxytocin and calms cardiovascular stress
- Studies show that regular massage boosts levels of the feel-good hormone, serotonin, by up to 30 percent, while it also decreases cortisol (the stress hormone) this leads to less stress and can heal symptoms of depression
- Regular massage therapy can help with pain management because it’s a natural way to boost levels of pain-killing endorphins
When you consider all the scientific reasons that therapeutic touch is good for us, doesn’t it make booking a custom facial or massage seem less of a luxury and more of a preventative health care plan?
It’s not like we can walk around hugging everyone we meet, but we can put our health first and book some self-care services.