Owning It: The surprising power of human touch for reducing anxiety

In this bonus episode of Owning It, brought to you in partnership with NIVEA, I am joined by Claudia Hammond. Claudia is an award-winning broadcaster, she is visiting Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Sussex and the author of four books, most recently The Art of Rest.  We talk about the significance of human touch - something we've been seriously missing since lockdown - when it comes to lowering our anxiety in particular. It's not just something that feels nice, it has a real impact on your body at a biological level, boosting the nice hormones and dissolving the bad ones. We talk through the science behind it, the findings from an incredible piece of research called The Touch Test, and how we can gently reintroduce human touch back into our lives as things begin to open up. We also talk about the natural apprehension we're likely to experience as things return to 'normal', and how to circumvent this. NIVEA Cares beyond Skin, to find out more about NIVEA's #CareforHumanTouch initiative visit nivea.co.uk/humantouchOrder yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok hereSubscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related)Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.