Juhi Kumari
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Written By: Juhi Kumari | Published : August 5, 2019 7:05 PM IST
The sweet gesture of just touching somebody’s hands stimulates your body and triggers the secretion of many hormones. © Shutterstock
Do you feel that there is something special about holding the hands of someone you love? But we just don't know how to articulate what that special thing is. Most of you may say that holding hands generate feelings of security and intimacy. It can make you feel a deep connection with the person whose hands you are holding. This act can also arouse many emotions in you.
The sweet gesture of just touching somebody's hands stimulates your body and triggers the secretion of many hormones. This make you feel a close connection to the other person. It can positively affect your physical and mental well-being. Besides, it can also play a significant role in making your romantic relationship more strong. Let us see how the simple act of holding hands can help you.
Holding your partner's hand can make you feel calmer, says a study conducted at the University of Virginia. When you are stressed, the level of cortisol hormone in your blood is high. And, when you hold your partner's hand, the level of this hormone goes down. This gives you a happy and warmer feeling. Just a light touch can relieve all your physical and mental stress. So, whenever you feel that any tension is bothering you, just hold your lover's hand. Apart from this, you can also indulge in regular exercise, yoga, and avoid smoking and drinking to get rid of stress.
When you hold your lover's hand, nerves in your brain get stimulated as most of the nerve endings are present in your hands. This leads to the production of a hormone called oxytocin, which is also known as the 'love hormone'. It has a positive effect on the body and makes you feel happy and warm. It also makes you feel connected. This sweet gesture is a non-verbal form of communication that brings you close to your beloved and creates a stronger bond. Holding the hands of anyone close to you, like mother, father, sibling, or your best friend can also have almost similar effects.
When you hold the hands of your partner with whom you are romantically involved, your brain waves sync with his and subside pain, says a research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Stress can have detrimental effects on your body. And, it can potentially lead to headache and also physical and mental pain. This small gesture creates a feeling of empathy that has strong pain reducing ability. During the above-mentioned study, researchers found that individuals enrolled for the research started to physiologically mirror the people they were with. This means that a romantic touch can have pain killing effects on your mind and body.
Whenever you are in scary situation or when you are watching a horror movie, hold your beloved's hand. As mentioned above, doing this can calm your senses and make you feel secured. Also, it will give you strength to fight against any hurdle. This can help deal with any kind of fear effectively. It clearly means that there is a biological magic that occurs whenever you come close to your partner and share a touch. During nervousness or fear, your brain gets stimulated that this leads to the secretion of the adrenaline hormone in the adrenal glands. This hormone is responsible for the fight or flight response of your body. Holding your partner's hand can lead to a drop in the level of this hormone and relax you.
Holding hands can calm your nerves and lower blood pressure. Some of the known factors of high blood pressure include stress, fear, etc. To cope with these situations, your body remains in an alert mode. In such a situation, your blood pressure remains higher than normal. And, any feeling of security can potentially bring your blood pressure down. This clearly means holding hands is not only great for mental health but also for physical health.
When you are in a calm state of mind, you fall asleep easily. Right? Well, the right touch can also have the same effects on your body. It relaxes your mind and body and take you to sleep mode. Not only this, holding your partner's hands more frequently can improve the quality of your sleep. Apart from this, you can go for exercises daily, avoid exposure to blue light in the night, and stay away from caffeine intake.
A high level of cortisol can weaken the immune system. And, as we already mentioned earlier, holding hands can lower its level significantly. Clearly, this sweet gesture can boost the function of your immune system. So, if you want to keep any disease or condition at bay, just hold hands. Come closer to your partner, hug him or hold his hands. Doing this can keep free radicals and infections at bay.
As already mentioned, holding hands can activate areas in the brain that can lower your stress level. A calmer mind can work better and optimally. Also, an empathetic touch full of love triggers neurotransmitters in your brain responsible for the secretion of the happy hormone 'endorphins'. This chemical can boost your mood and help in better brain function.
