The hug is the best therapy or medicine for the soul and it is not only for man: various species of animals have been captured through a photographic lens in that moment of pleasure, comfort, tranquility, relief. With two or more hugging each other, there are hearts beating inside that match feelings.
Today, January 21, is World Hug Day, which began to be celebrated in 1986 in Michigan, USA, at the initiative of Kevin Zoborney, who since then, even when the digital age and social networks were a fantasy of the future, he realized the coldness of affection between people, even within family nuclei.
If since the 1980s that became a concern for that man, in a context where there were no smartphones, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, nor streaming television, what will remain for our current society, increasingly alienated? segmented, digitized and manipulated by the Internet.
It has been shown that the hug is synonymous with health, it gives us a positive vibe capable of getting us out of unwanted episodes, it also resets experiences, happy passages, moments of life apparently lost in memory, it helps to lower blood pressure and makes us feel safe and confident.
However, hugs currently go hand in hand with two inconveniences, in addition to technological development, there are measures to avoid contagion with COVID-19, among them, physical and social distancing has caused that, due to health, responsibility and protection, these have gone into the background.
But since everything is not black and white, it is no less true that right now, as long as it is with caution, especially with the use of masks, a hug is the best sign of affection and attention for a grandfather overwhelmed by the pandemic and months of confinement, for parents and siblings, and for the friend who has suffered a family loss.
