This incredibly beautiful study that was released this week from the University of Colorado Boulder and University of Haifa shows some amazing effects of holding the hand of someone you love. (source)
We get a lot of science and research showing us the things we’re doing wrong (things we shouldn’t eat, things we shouldn’t do…) so I love finding studies like this one that are so promising.
What Happens When We Hold Hands
When you reach for the hand of someone you love, your breathing, heart rate and even brain waves, sychronize. This is called “interpersonal synchronization” which means people can physiologically mirror the people they are with. Isn’t that incredible?
But this research went a step further…
They wanted to know if holding hands could relieve pain.
During the labor and delivery of their baby, the lead author of the study felt that when he held his wife’s hand, her pain dwindled. He developed this study to test that and the results said yes. When someone you love is in pain and you have physical touch like holding hands, their pain subsides.
This study was done on couples in a long term relationship and not family members, but I have to assume that this has to work for anyone with a loving relationship. I know that the love we have for our children is just as strong if not more.
How amazing that we could potentially relieve some of our children’s pain by holding their hand?
The research shows one more important point: the higher level of empathy, the more their brain activity synced and the more the pain subsided. Who would we feel more empathetic for than our children? I’m sure we have so much power that we didn’t realize in holding our children when they are in pain.
Tell me, have you ever experienced your pain diminishing when someone close to you holds your hands?
Liz is a just a mom trying to keep it real about how little she sleeps, how often she gets puked on and how much she loves them. You can find her here every day writing about real-mom moments.
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