As if we needed any more reason to give our sweethearts extra squeezes, while we link arms with our besties and crank up the volume on our latest favorite mixtape (#heaven)…

Here’s some crazy science around the power of touch and music, and the incredible healing they trigger in the human psyche. ❤️

Imagine what happens each time they’re combined on the dancefloor?

Did you know that…

Music helps soothe cognitive dissonance and helps us be more productive. Cognitive dissonance is “the idea that people experience unpleasant feelings when they either possess contradictory knowledge, or are confronted with new information that opposes existing beliefs.”

🔬 Scientists tested this by giving a group of students a multiple choice exam. Students were asked to record the level of difficulty for each question as well as the time it took to answer.

Understandably, the most difficult questions caused cognitive dissonance (due to the unpleasant experience of grappling with them). Students rushed through answering these so that the process would be over quicker — and grades suffered.

However when music was played in the background, students put more time into tough questions and test scores improved.

Bottom line: music helps us through the seemingly unpleasant and helps us better handle and endure situations, boosting our success rates during life’s tricky parts.

🤔 In another study, premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit left the ICU, on average, 11 days earlier if they used a device that played lullabies triggered by their sucking.

And further research in neuroscience has shown stroke victims and individuals with Parkinson’s disease having an easier time walking while listening to music.

Bottom line: music heals, y’all.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

On to the power of touch….

Neuroscientist, Richard Davidson, has run a number of studies to reveal the power of touch. It turns out that the mere act of holding hands does wonders in reducing fear, loneliness and physical pain.

⚡️In one of his studies, scientists gave participants mild electric shocks. Meanwhile, magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measurements were taken of their brain activity.

When left completely alone while receiving shocks, the areas of the participants’ brains responsible for emotion were very active — displaying that the participant was experiencing fear and pain.

However, when team members from the lab held the hands of participants, (even though they had never previously met, nor could they see their hand holders face) — brain scans showed perceivably lower levels of fear.

Bottom line: I wanna hold your haaaand, I wanna hold your hand (baby you, got that somethin’…that makes me feel a lot less scared and much more at ease, thank you very much. ) 😉🎵

🤗Hugging has proved to be so important to our health that back in 2014, a Japanese company invented the “tranquility chair,” a seated apparatus that gives you a hug. The hugging chair originated as a solution for the older population (most of whom live alone), meant to offer comfort and cure loneliness.

🔬Studies have shown that when we hug more, we are more likely to have an optimistic outlook on life, higher levels of self-­esteem and boosted oxytocin levels which makes us feel bonded to others.

Researchers at the University College London conducted studies that proved how “slow, gentle stroking by a stranger can reduce feelings of social exclusion after social rejection.”

Bottom line: know someone who’s feeling lonely? Reach out. Then wrap your arms around them and take your sweet time with that embrace.

It does the body (mind, and heart!) good.

#morningmischief

Photo by Kiddest Metaferia