The Hug

Quick tip: Bad day? Hug someone. Your body will release oxytocin, "the love hormone," which reduces stress eases depression and improves immune function, writes Walter Bortz in The Roadmap to 100. Plus, you'll lift someone else's spirits.

What an easy thing to do. Hugs are so awesome. Nothing about a true, heartfelt hug is wrong. Hugs can take a downer day and turn it into a not so bad one and a hug can turn a great day into a super day.

Hugs are all over, everybody loves them. At any game show or talk show when someone wins or just comes out on stage, what is the first thing that is done, they hug someone. And sometimes it is a complete stranger!

Now I am not condoning just stopping some stranger on the street and hugging them, that could get you in trouble. But if you need a hug I know there is someone you can turn to, a family member, a friend, a significant other.

And take it from me, no one hugs better than a toddler and no one appreciates a hug more than an elderly person.

If you feel your life is a bit empty of hugs, then I do believe your mission should be to go out and fill it up with hugs. The best way to do that, and I've said it before, is to volunteer! Find a daycare or an after school program. With the economy the way it is, they always need volunteers. When I was younger, in girl scouts, we went once a month to a home for elderly persons. It was really a highlight for me, they were always so happy to see us, and some of the hugs I got there touched me the deepest. Toddlers and elderly people don't seem to have the barrier that most people in between those ages have.

If you were to ask for a hug from a toddler, they will smile huge and hug you as tight as their little arms will let them. And if you reach out and give an elderly person a hug, you can feel it all through your body, the comfort and joy it brings them, and thereby, to yourself.

Hugs are wonderful things. They are appropriate for all occasions, happy, sad, hard, easy. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, no matter what someone tells you, if you hug them, you will give them what they need, be it reinforcement, courage, strength, peace, or just add to their joyousness.

So your mission, and you should accept it, is to go out and give many hugs and take a moment with each one and say, what did I give, and what was given to me? See with hugs it truly is a two way street. Both persons, or in the case of a group hug - all persons, will benefit greatly.