Hugging

If there is one gesture that shows how pure Love can be physical and welcoming, perhaps that is the most universal: hugging. Yes, kissing is one, yet in many cases it can be very exclusive. But hugging encompasses all levels, situations, differences, and personalities. Hugging is so universal that any person, whatever language they speak, when he or she throws open arms to give someone a big hug, can always give the warmth of Love in that very moment. A hug welcomes and comforts everyone, breaks down the barrier between strangers, creates a circle of inclusive intimacy. Hugging is but Love, physicalized.

Leo Buscaglia, one of my favorite authors on Love, shares in his book Love that no person hugs the same way. In such a way that all of us is unique, we can express ourselves with great uniqueness, for there is no one person alive in this world as exactly as we are. In Buscaglia's insights, hugging has a signature. Giving a hug may look like the same, but Love has no limited expression. Since Love manifest in infinite ways, so as hugs.

Thich Nhat Hahn has invented a different kind of meditation. He calls it hugging meditation. He says it is a combination of East and West. In the East, people are good in meditation, but seldom in physical expression, unlike in the West. So hugging meditation brings the best of both worlds. He tells us that through this technique, we become aware of hugging another, of being there, of accepting with our whole presence the presence of the person we hug. I was quite surprised the first time I learned this because I've been doing this meditation with my significant other, as well as with my loved ones. And prior to learning that there is this technique, I'm glad to be able to hug them with such presence and Loving awareness. It is the easiest way of appreciating them and showing my Love.


I remember a study I have read somewhere that hugging is a way to increase immune system of our bodies. That explains why the more I hug, the less I get sad, even to catch a cold. Bernie Siegel said that no one of his patients would know how to increase their immune globulins, yet if he tells them to Love, the effect is the same. If there is one way to increase them, that is hugging.

It's heartwarming to find some Filipino youth, some years back, who went to the streets to offer free hugs to any passing pedestrians. Some people found it a little strange, if not taken aback. Yet, maybe because hugging is not a common experience, especially with a stranger. Nonetheless, it has opened doors for a stranger to get outside one's wall of isolation, and take refuge in the arms of another who offer hugs with such fun and caring. While for nature-lovers, hugging a tree or a pet animal is such a ritual. Young teens love to hug big teddy bear toys, which are cute cuddling substitutes, if not pillows. After all, hugging does all the job to let Love be known and shown in the most unlikely situations.

I find hugging as a way to unite again with friends I haven't seen for a long time. Time and distance seem to vanish, and we begin to commune again as if we are always together. Such gesture has the depth of Love, for it brings our pairs of separated arms wrapped into Oneness. We may all seem to be separated with each other, but hugging is where we can see how our unseen connections entangle again in the subtle level, where Love, as an energy, has always existed.

In our world where people often feel disconnected, I believe hugging makes us feel again this connection. We can undo the culture of feeling strange to feeling warm, where our physical bodies can be always in touch with another, to fill each other with Love. We don't have to wait for some miracle to happen. A pair of open arms receiving another is miracle enough. Hugging can create a wave of Loving energy that will reconnect us to the deep essence of our Souls. In the level where God can be found, everyone of us is always in this eternal hug of Love.