Several studies on natural creation and attachment have demonstrated the importance of physical contact from birth.
Caresses and caresses have a special power, the power to communicate affections and feelings, that the baby knows from birth to understand, receive and internalize.
- This is why.
- In many hospitals.
- The act of skin with the mother’s skin with her baby is practiced from birth.
- To provoke the mammalian character of attachment and recognition of her main reference.
Are there different ways of communicating, on the one hand, verbal communication, which is transmitted through words, and nonverbal communication, which is expressed through gestures, postures, tone of voice, timbre, etc. ?
In addition, it could be said that there is another way of communicating, emotional communication, which transmits emotions, feelings and desires, and without a doubt, this happens through physical contact.
In our culture, as in so many others, kissing is used as part of the cordial greeting between two known or unknown people, and this social protocol has caused the loss of the emotional component it has in essence.
However, kissing a loved one, or his or her spouse, regains the emotional component that is expressed at the most intimate level.
The caresses also acquire an emotional and sensual meaning on the most intimate and private level, being an emotional language in itself.
And hugs are the only gesture that has transcended the social and public plane, preserving the emotional and expressive component of desires.
In interpersonal relationships, there are several spaces or areas in which we can interact.
First, the public space, where you interact with several people at the same time, for example when we present a conference and are about 3. 5 to 7 meters away.
On the other hand, there is the social area in which we interact with one or two unknown people, between 1. 20 and 3. 50 m.
Then there is the personal area, which is the distance to reach or have a public conversation, from about 45 cm to 1. 20 m.
And finally, the intimate area, which few people access, as it is an area reserved for people of the most intimate level, in which interactions are based on physical contact, at distances of 45 cm or less.
It is in this intimate space that the various options of emotional communication by physical contact are born, sometimes at the social and public level, sometimes on a private level, as in sentimental relationships.
But without a doubt, maintaining physical contact means entering the intimate area, where the person is most vulnerable, and where the intrusion of a person to which we have not given access will make us feel invaded, assaulted or stripped.
It is precisely for fear that this will happen so we erect barriers that prevent access to anyone not chosen for it, relegating them to the personal sphere, absent from physical contact.
Emotional communication through physical contact has great potential for interpersonal relationships, as it helps us to feel more for the other person, practicing more naturally empathy and respect for one’s emotions and feelings.
Opening our intimate area more often will allow us to know the most sensitive, emotional and humane plan of people, and then break down barriers or masks that sometimes prevent us from understanding, respecting or feeling loved.
Experiencing physical contact with people receptive to this deepens the meaning of human life and relationships.
For a simple gesture, without words, allows us to feel much more than a speech, and therefore, in an instant, we will understand that we are part of that person’s life and that we are not alone.