Sometimes language is just not precise enough to make the specific meaning totally clear. Let’s take the word “love” as an example. You can love your wife, your children, your job, your cup of coffee in the morning, your new hunting rifle, God, or your country.

Obviously loving your daughter is quite a different feeling from loving your football team. Love for your family is a completely different concept from loving a particular brand of beer. We use the same word “love”, but its meaning changes based on the context. Love without context does not have a unique meaning.

Now let’s look at “touch”. You touch the touchpad of your notebook. This kind of touch is mechanical with no emotional component. You can physically touch another person. That could be anything from friendly to sensual to sexual to painful to lethal according to the kind of touch.

A bodyworker can work on you with a clinical touch. Some massage therapists have the magic touch and can take you into a blissful state. A story or a movie can touch us intensely.

One word with more than one meaning. Touching has no meaning outside of a unique context – it may be a loving touch or an aggressive touch, a mechanical touch or a sensual touch, a skilled touch or a rough touch. Our intentions give “touch” its meaning. Generally our intentions are clear when touching objects. But when we touch people, it is often not so easy and clear.

When you touch a cat or a dog, they just roll over and enjoy it. They don’t care if you are male or female. They just enjoy it without any second thoughts. This also holds true for infants. They simply enjoy being touched or hugged or stroked. And they also love touching each other quite naturally.

Some years ago a very interesting study was conducted with new born babies. The babies were divided into two groups. One was touched regularly and the other not at all. The study had to be aborted because the vital symptoms of the group of babies who were not touched started to deteriorate and the researchers were afraid that they might actually die.

Clearly babies and young children enjoy being touched. However at some point things change and suddenly a loving touch is not considered enjoyable anymore, but rather becomes embarrassing and awkward. Why and when do the rules change for touching? It is ‘educated’ out of them, and the adults stamp their behavior on their children.

When adults touch each other, many issues come into play. Does the culture or religion permit it? How about sexual advances? How does the other person perceive it? Hugs between men can be just a friendly form of greeting. But it can also make someone feel uncomfortable if he associates hugs between men with homosexuality.

Hugs between men and women can be a pleasant interaction or an inappropriate sexual advance. So when we hug people, we are entering the world of the mind. In various cultures touching rules can be very different. Arab men kiss each other on the cheeks, whereas for American men this is not acceptable at all. Physical touch is normal in some cultures whereas it is totally avoided in others.

So what is the conclusion of all those ‘touch complications’? Naturally humans love to be touched, but often they shy away from the experience because of cultural or religious rules, abuse by mal-intentioned people, insecurity, or even legal issues. This is where massage therapy can be an ideal way of eliminating all those issues and allowing one to accept and enjoy touch for what it is – a wonderfully  pleasant feeling.