{"id":7448,"date":"2016-11-03T20:31:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T02:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=7448"},"modified":"2016-11-03T20:31:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T02:31:19","slug":"we-need-more-hugging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/we-need-more-hugging\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need MORE HUGGING"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I love hugs and I have always been a hugger. I hug everyone. It is just something I have always done because it makes me happy! But it doesn&#8217;t just make me happier &#8211; hugs make everyone happier!<\/p>\n<p>Did you know that every time you hug someone or someone hugs you that oxytocin gets released in our bodies which causes us to have the warm fuzzy bonding feeilngs? And did you know that hugs also cause our brains to release dopamine which causes us to feel more confident and motivated? And best of all, hugs cause increase serotonin levels which elevate our moods and make us feel happier! Studies have also shown that hugs help us feel less fearful about our own mortality, hugs decrease our feelings of loneliness, hugs reduce our stress levels, hugs reduce tension, they calm us down, they help us feel happier and more secure, and they even increase our self-esteem. Let\u2019s face it &#8211; Hugs are like a happy little work-out that make our bodies healthier and our minds happier, and yet they are so much more fun than a work-out is!!!<\/p>\n<p>So why then, don\u2019t we give more hugs in this world? Well one man named Juan Mann had this very question and he decided that he was going to do something about it.<\/p>\n<p>It started back around 2006 when Juan Mann was arriving at the airport as he was landing in his hometown. Coming off the plain he was longing for someone to be there to greet him and hug him, but no one was. So he got a piece of cardboard and made a big sign that said \u201cFree Hugs\u201d on it. Then he went to the busiest pedestrian intersection and he held up the sign. Juan shared the following:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993366;\">\u201c\u2026for 15 minutes, people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling. Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven&#8217;t compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As Juan\u2019s \u201cFree Hugs\u201d campaign spread across the city the police ordered the campaign be banned. So Juan began collecting signatures on a petition to allow the \u201cFree Hugs\u201d to continue. Watch this video to see what happened with Juan\u2019s campaign:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vr3x_RRJdd4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The simple truth is that Hugs remind us that we are not alone.\u00a0And in this crazy world\u00a0in these crazy times\u00a0every one of us could use the reminder more often that we are\u00a0not alone.\u00a0We need\u00a0MORE HUGGING!<\/p>\n<p>Virtual Hugs from me to all \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love hugs and I have always been a hugger. I hug everyone. It is just something I have always done because it makes me happy! But it doesn&#8217;t just make me happier &#8211; hugs make everyone happier! Did you know that every time you hug someone or someone hugs you that oxytocin gets released [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[898,691,453,8160,1438,395,697,174,11576,11577,550,410,1885,91,778,547,6071,1792,9402,6176,11567,11568,11579,591,1242,11575,11571,2374,180,375,454,11569,2507,11574,3617,137,7511,1998,35,2583,11573,448,5661,11578,1182,11570,496,27,519,852,145,81,1236,834,775,8767,353,11572,7611,1166,11145,622],"class_list":["post-7448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-acceptance","tag-accident","tag-act-of-service","tag-all-alone","tag-alone","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-anger","tag-anxiety","tag-arms","tag-arms-around","tag-blessed","tag-blessing","tag-campaign","tag-change","tag-depression","tag-do-something","tag-dopamine","tag-encouragement","tag-feel-better","tag-feel-good","tag-free-hugs","tag-free-hugs-campaign","tag-freehugscampaign-org","tag-friendship","tag-frown","tag-frowning","tag-give-more-hugs","tag-happier","tag-happy","tag-hate","tag-hug","tag-hugger","tag-hugs","tag-juan-mann","tag-just-do-it","tag-kindness","tag-loneliness","tag-lonely","tag-love","tag-make-a-start","tag-more-fun","tag-music","tag-not-alone","tag-oxytocin","tag-reduce-stress","tag-relieves-stress","tag-self-worth","tag-self-confidence","tag-self-esteem","tag-serotonin","tag-service","tag-smile","tag-smiling","tag-start","tag-struggles","tag-tension","tag-video","tag-warm-fuzzy","tag-work-out","tag-world","tag-you-are-not-alone","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7448"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7451,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions\/7451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}