It has been noted that mammals (that also means humans just like you and me) benefit hugely from touch. Touching comes in many forms like scratching, rubbing, pulling-pushing, play fighting, combing hair, holding hands, kissing, and cuddling.
Group or couple activities that allow for touch create ease and a sense of safety for one and all. The changes to how you feel internally are described well in Polyvagal Theory. Polyvagal Theory describes how your Autonomic Nerve System behaves. When you feel a sense of safety or danger arising, your Autonomic System uses long-standing nerve pathways to communicate. The feeling of danger and fear acts to stimulate you with an even more profound effect. Rightly so, who wants to get eaten by some monstrous predator with fangs that’ll slice through you with ease? The reaction you have to danger and fear is similar to how a reptile’s nerve system behaves. You literally become a reactor and disconnect your ability to think about anything other than survival. So in times of overwhelming stress, you can bet your overreaction and hyper-vigilance are being influenced by these aspects of your makeup. When social and environmental cues change, you will allow the Autonomic System to harmonise and restore, diverting your energy to living life.
In times of abundance and perceived safety, what do apes and elephants (to name a few) spend their rest time doing? Well, they are building relationships and bonding through touch and play. And how much attention each animal receives is also linked to its status in the group.
Of course, humans are much alike. Many human societies exhibit social scales in health, and socioeconomic status has been called the “fundamental cause” of health inequalities. In western societies, inequalities between the highest versus lowest socioeconomic stratum may affect the adult life span by more than a decade. These behaviour arise, in part, from differences in resource access and health risk behaviours. In Rhesus Macaques and Long-tailed Macaques, social subordination has been linked to changes in:
- Cardiovascular health.
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function.
- Inflammation.
- Gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
The suggestion is to link with the responses to social adversity in humans and other social primates, especially regarding the regulation of the immune system.
The amount of energy you need to regain a healthy baseline of vitality and energy is called “Allostatic Load.” The body is designed to take a lot of stress. However, there must be more than adequate amounts of rest and rejuvenation. Many of life’s chronic diseases happen because of a loss of resilience. And because a speedy return to normality hasn’t arisen, health and harmony don’t materialise.
Humans are an intelligent bunch, assorted with feedback loops, robust spontaneous organisation, and the ability to create coherent use of the energy and information for life. We can be healthy, learn and love unconditionally if only given the right social and environmental cues. Look for what is good in the world, see the beauty of existence and build lasting intimate relationships to bring about health and wellness in the most profound manner.
Furthermore, the low force touch you experience during your Healthpraxis Adjustments-Entrainments can also help you shift your internal resources in a healthy direction. You can have Allostasis, whereby you can experience and tolerate life stresses and bounce back all the wiser for it.
Snyder-Mackler, N., Et Al, Social status alters immune regulation and response to infection in macaques, 2016, [Online 01.12.2021] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah3580
Fox, P, J., 2018, The Thermodynamic Subluxation – The Intersection of Chiropractic Ecology ISBN: 9781980700005