The ability to heal….
The ability to harm….
The ability to say hello….

Have you ever wondered why you find it hard to reach out and give someone a hug, why you shrink away from a certain person’s touch, why you can’t stand having your feet massaged or why you love having your ears rubbed? We are all unique in our response to different forms of physical touch based on past experiences, positive or negative, and even past life experiences.

Touch is one of our five physical senses – one of the ways in which the brain receives and interprets energy and information. Touch is one of the ways we as spirit are able to experience life in this physical universe.

The movie “City of Angels” comes to mind in which Nicholas Cage plays an angel (Seth) who is “seen” by a young heart surgeon played by Meg Ryan. They form a friendship and begin to fall in love, however, their inability to “feel” each other becomes a barrier. He makes the decision to fall from heaven, give up his existence as an angel and become human just so that he can be with her and touch her, feel her warmth….. When an accident claims her life, Seth is visited by an angel friend and asked if he regrets his decision to become human. Seth answers: “No, I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand than eternity without it.”

Touch is an essential part of living and indeed thriving in a physical body. Studies have shown that infants who are deprived of nurturing touch do not flourish in the same way as those who experience positive physical contact.

The same rule applies to the elderly who very often become isolated due to physical limitations, an ever-dwindling group of friends or peers, family living far away and who, as a result, no longer have the benefit of regular nurturing touch.

Without positive, validating physical touch in our world, we can become disaffected and disconnected from ourselves and those around us – this creates isolation which, in turn, makes it harder to reach out and create physical contact.

Just as positive touch can help a person thrive, we are all acutely aware of how negative or destructive touch can undermine, damage and severely traumatize, the result of which again leads to isolation.

Geting back to how we respond when we consider, or come into, physical contact with another person, our bodies are intricate sensory organs equipped with senses for reading or feeling the energy field associated with every living organism.

So when you shy away from contact with someone, perhaps you are responding to an energy in their space that makes you uncomfortable, or maybe that person stimulates or lights up some energy in you from a previous negative experience with touch.

Similarly, an immediate attraction to an individual is again a response to their energy. You shake their hand and there is a feeling of comfort, ease and familiarity. Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone new and instantly feeling as if you have known them for years? We, the spiritual part of ourselves, in conjunction with our physical body are responding to an energy or picture about that person.

These feelings or sensations are real. Each and every physical contact carries with it an energy which, at times, can be felt almost before contact is made. It can be hard to understand these feelings, responses or reactions particularly when we are not taught how to recognize, interpret or even pay attention to our sensitivities to energy.

Next time you come across someone who evokes a strong emotional response when you shake their hand, pat their shoulder or shy away from contact, take a look at where that response originates.

Even though physical contact may appear to be skin deep, the energy associated with that touch can reach into the depths of your soul.

Photos courtesy of stock.xchng.