These days with information freely available through many channels it is harder to control how much children can see or hear, especially when it comes to tragic events involving other children, for instance. Or devastating natural disasters where the sheer scale of the destruction is hard to understand.
When bad things happen it can be hard to find comforting words. Sometimes a hug will do. Hugging is proven to make us healthier and happier. Scientists say that supporting a person through touch can reduce their stress and that of the person doing the comforting.
Most of us communicate occurs verbally or through our facial expressions. But touch is another way that we can send messages to one another. In fact, we can express a wide range of important emotions to another person by touching different parts of their body, like anger, fear, love, gratitude, happiness, sadness, sympathy, empathy and understanding.
While we search for the right words, remember hugging is a very comforting and communicative type of touch. It really makes things better and is always the right size.