This Self-Love Practice Might Surprise You

Touch yourself…seriously.

It’s not as weird as you think! I’m not necessarily talking about sexually…though it absolutely could be! I am saying..it is even simpler than that!

One of the easiest things I believe you can do to start integrating self-love practices into your everyday routine is by touching yourself. How?

Ok so there is this hormone called oxytocin. It gets released into our bodies during moments of connection and touch with others. In fact it is sometimes called the “love drug” or even the “cuddle hormone.” How cute! When we hug someone else, or get touched by someone, or have sexual contact with someone, this hormone gets released and it makes us feel safe, warm, and euphoric. Which, who doesn’t want to feel that way?

Here’s the cool thing…we can actually promote this release of the “love drug” all by ourselves!

How? So easy. We simply touch ourselves! And as I said…that could be in a sexual way…but simply making a habit of putting lotion all over your body every day or coconut oil can help to stimulate the nerves in our skin that activate this pituitary response. Have you the stress ever had a panic attack or maybe seen someone having a panic attack, and they wrap their arms around themselves and rock back and forth a little? This is literally an adaptation that the human body has created in response to stress, because by putting your arms around yourself and actually giving yourself a hug, your sensory nerves will respond with that release of oxytocin, and your brain will start to tell you it’s ok, you’re safe. And slowly, you will start to calm down and feel better.

This is something the body just does in response to extreme stress like that, but we can utilize it in a more intentional way. Quite simply, touching your own skin and creating contact, can start to bring about those feelings of safety.

In Ayurveda, one of the common practices is called, Abhyanga. This means warm oil self-massage…and it is largely encouraged for self-care.Why? Because of the way it promotes the production of oxytocin…helping to promote more loving feelings towards yourself, but also a feeling of comfort IN YOUR OWN SKIN.

In addition, self-touch or self-massage has a great deal of other benefits:

-decreases affects of aging
-promotes better sleep
-increases circulation
-lubricates joints
-softens the skin
-stimulates lymphatic system (aids in detoxification of tissues)
-just feels super duper good

Starting to sound pretty ok, right?

So my favorite part of this is that this type of self-care can really help with how we start to feel about ourselves. Absolutely…touch with other people is important too. But often a lot of us who don’t like our bodies or feel “not good enough” become afraid of our own bodies and ultimately ourselves. We look to others for validation and love and acceptance. And yeah, to some extent we do need others. But what I think is so important is that we can learn to seek comfort in ourselves..and learn that we are not completely reliant on others to feel some sort of love or affection or comfort. We can do that for ourselves and there is no reason why we shouldn’t be!

Grab your favorite oil (coconut, almond, olive, jojoba, ) add a few drops of your favorite essential oil…and literally massage your entire body. You will come out of that practice feeling absolutely beautiful and luscious. And you deserve to feel that way as much as anybody.