It is Valentine’s Day so if you haven’t done it go out and buy something nice for someone you love. If you truly love someone you don’t need a special day to express your love for that special person. You want to express your love each and every day for without love, we are nothing. OK, I love my new car too and my favorite shirt and my favorite TV show.  Love is a word that gets thrown around a lot but so what. There are far worse words being tossed around too.

What is great about love is the warm feeling it gives you inside. It also helps to be lucky enough to have someone who wants to caress you. Hold your hand for no reason. Play with the short hairs on your neck. Play with your earlobe or best of all that warm and passionate kiss, Love your pets. Love your children. Other people’s pets or kids. Just take a day to acknowledge anyone or anything that makes you feel warm and fuzzy in some capacity.

The problem is that we are in a global society where people have long distance relationships. Chat lines and Facebook and all kinds of social media has also brought social relationships that often do not offer the added much need dimension to a relationship which is the cuddling or sensations of touch and smell. Most people are such germ phobic that they avoid at all cost any type of touching or bodily contact. Hand shaking has been replaced by fist touching or just a wave from a safe three feet away from someone.

We live in such an impersonal life now we need to request hugs. Some are even willing to pay a fee for a hug. Really. 52% of people still think the best Valentines gift is flowers. Only 18% of people like perfume as a gift. Giving or receiving.  16% of people like candy and only 8% like the gift of Lingerie.  Yeah, women don’t dress up much for love anymore. If you are in need of a Valentine’s Day hug well, it could be just a phone call away now. That is what I call a service industry.

Most of the east is smothered in cold hard packed snow this Valentine’s Day and most of us are spending our day getting exhausted from digging out from the cold boulders. We are not exhausted from long bouts of energy placed in the bedroom sharing bodily fluids. If you have that special someone in your heart you expect and crave the forecast for America’s lovers and soul mates of extra coziness, caressing and kisses, snuggling and well frankly sex too.

What about all the lonely hearts out there who order that table for one and spend the time staring at their phone? A new industry has popped up just for you then. Trey are called professional cuddles and they are earning a living. Really. The demand for non-sexual touching is rising. Sigh! No pun intended there.  The  “professionals” describe their business as holding people for extended periods of time. .It starts standing up and then progresses to laying down. In private sessions the professionals will hold you for 90 minutes continually. I’m not sure if my wife would like if I hired someone to hold her for a while.

They call themselves Hugging Therapists and for $120 dollars they will hug you for 90 minutes. Jeesh! I remember when water was free of charge too. Hugging, cuddling and snuggling are all my favorites but is there a difference? They say hugging is something you do standing up. When you lay down it transitions into cuddling or snuggling. When you pay for this stuff there are strict ground rules. You are not allowed to be physically uncomfortable at any moment. You always need to advocate fyou, well, it is not these days. Psychologists say this should not seem unusual since we already pay people to do all sorts of things for us from buying our food to takingor your comfort. The kind of tingle like your arm is falling asleep go away. Not the other tingle which can lead to sex.

The second ground rule is no sex. I personally love breaking that rule so this would be the wrong profession for me. If you have any sexual feelings, you are not supposed to act on them. Yes, professional cuddlers are non-sexual cuddlers.  If it all seems strange to  care of our children. What is wrong with paying someone to help us relax? Paying someone to embrace us can’t be all that bad. Compared to people around the world, Americans barely touch each other at all. It can be a cultural thing. Studies prove that Latin Americans touch a lot compared tom Americans and people from Brittan that don’t touch much at all.

Being cuddled or touched brings health benefits for everyone. Scientific studies have proven that your Cortisol levels will go down as a result of hugging especially in stressful situations. When people say, “Let me give you a hug to feel better.” They are no liars. Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced   by the adrenal gland as a response to stress.  So help relieve someone’s stress today. At least give a hug. Touching is fundamental to the currency of delight.  Be happy you can touch him or her. Do it tonight.