A Quick and Easy Way to Lower Your Stress and Cortisol

Might hugs from a stranger also lower stress and cortisol? What about self-touch? Keep these questions in mind as we turn to aComprehensive PsychoneuroendocrinologySample: 159 German-speaking participants; average age of 22 years .

Methods: Participants were exposed to a social stressor known as the Trier Social Stress Test . After they had prepared for the test, they were assigned to either a hug, self-soothing touch, or control condition. Note, there were six conditions, but for the purposes of this post, we will focus only on these three, which are described below.Participants received a 20-second hug from a female research assistant. During the hug, they were instructed to focus on their breath and feelings of warmth.

Measures included salivary cortisol, heart rate, dispositional stress reactivity, chronic stress, and dispositional self-compassion. The main dependent variable was subjective-emotional stress response. This was assessed using the German version of the Subjective-Emotional Response Scale, which consists of 15 items that measure the intensity of feelings .

Individuals in the hug condition and self-soothing touch condition, compared to the control group, had “reduced cortisol secretion responses to socio-evaluative stress with lower average cortisol values on three out of four measurement points after the stressor.” In addition, self-soothing touch was rated as more pleasant than receiving a hug. And “the self-soothing touch condition showed faster recovery of cortisol levels to near-baseline after the stressor than the control group.

Tactile stimulation: The reduction in stress, whether due to self-soothing touch or receiving hugs, may be due to the stimulation of “C-fiber receptors that then stimulateActivation of self-related psychological constructs: Receiving hugs could potentially activate “psychological constructs such as social support, proximity, positive affiliation, or belonging, whereas self-soothing touch may invoke feelings of self-induced safety, intentionality,...

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