is there a right way to hug?

I’ve always been pro-hug. For me, hugs feel good in both sad and happy occasions and are easy to give freely.

When I started out in the “wellness” industry over 10 years ago there was a lot of pressure to hug “heart-to-heart”- meaning leaning in with our left shoulders as opposed to leading with our right.

I was always happy to try this type of hug, but it always felt a little awkward, forced. I knew enough anatomy to understand that our heart is only SLIGHTLY left of center. And, I knew enough about the heart’s energetic field to know that it is bigger than both huggers and therefore, if we are close enough to hug, we are already “heart-to-heart”.

So imagine my surprise earlier this year when I learned a new way to hug.

And then imagine my surprise that the new hugging method was, indeed, better.

This new way of hugging includes two steps:

1. two people give their consent to hug (or not - in this case, “no” is a complete sentence and you NEVER have to explain not wanting a hug).

2. two people hug WITHOUT either one of them leaning on the other and without either one hunching over the other.

I’ve been teaching people this type of hug and it really is so different (better!) from the way we typically hug.