When was the last time you did a family group hug? – posing for a picture standing next to one another does not count- lol.
I love hugging my baby, I do so as much as I can throughout the day. I also love hugging my husband, and I always make sure that before he goes to work and when he comes home we hug and kiss.
As our baby has gotten older, we have begun to do group hugs. All three hug together at the same time.
The other day as we were hugging, something clicked for me. I realized I never did family group hugs with my mom and dad. I remember hugging my mom or hugging my dad. But I don’t have much memory of hugging both my parents at the same time. And I said to my husband “I don’t remember ever doing this” and he looked at me and said, “Me neither”.
It was a true healing moment and an eye-opener.
Two things were happening. We both received and accepted from our daughter a feeling that we didn’t have in our childhood emotional memory bank, and on the other hand, we were establishing our unit that carries love, trust, and connection; setting a healthy path for the future when we may all need to show up for one another, to support one another, to be there for one another.
This simple daily exercise is building a bond that will be emotionally healthy and beneficial for the rest of our lives as a family. As our daughter grows, develops, and is faced with new experiences she will be able to reach out to mom and dad as a unit because she is learning to do so from a very young stage. And not only for her but also for us as parents, we know that emotionally we have each other’s back, that if we are faced with anything we are not alone, we have one another, which in turn allows us to have less stress and more confidence in approaching and dealing with unexpected things that may ever come our way.
This is powerful- and all it takes is a simple family group hug.
In my experience with clients through different healing sessions, one of the biggest issues in homes today is being home in which they feeling alone and not supported.
According to a report by Healthline, hugging has shown benefits of reducing stress, happiness, reduce illness, reduce fears, reduce pain and aid in communication.
Think of a family as a unit, and within that unit there are micro-units. As I mentioned I remember hugging my mom or my dad separately (micro-unit). And if I needed to talk to one of them I would also do so separately, never together- to be honest, it didn’t feel very comfortable or normal doing the whole family talk, it felt like I was in trouble or something really bad was happening.
As we are raising our children, it is our behavior that sets the standard of what type of relationship and interaction the whole family will have. If everyone feels safe and connected then communication, understanding and compromising can occur as a whole.
We already hug our children, we already hug our significant others. Incorporating group hugs can change the whole dynamic of how the home functions, interacts and behaves as one. Because after all home is meant to be our safe place.
We can’t change our past and the way we were raised, but we can change the future and the way we raise our children.
Photo by Sarah Cornish
Hugging benefits report by Healthline