Day 7 - 188 -- Communication Barriers

It has been a grey dismal day in terms of weather -- heavy cloud cover and showers throughout the day. Temperatures have been cooler than normal for this time of year. I will admit to enjoying the cooler evenings and nights, which are much more conducive to sleeping <smile>.  I made a visit to the office on campus to print some items and to pick up a couple of things stored in another office. The latter will be moved to my current office -- mainly decorative things to make the place look like mine <smile>. While in the other office, I had a great visit with a friend and former colleague. It has been a very long time since we have chatted in person. We followed protocol and wore masks and distanced during the visit. It was so difficult to refrain from hugging as we parted. <sigh> Some days the lack of human contact is so overwhelming.

As social animals, it has become clear that seeing people in three dimensions is so very different from the 2-D on screen. However, I wouldn't trade the online visit capability for anything short of being in the same place. As I've said before, I feel mental health would be worse for everyone if we only had telephone calls and mailed letters for communication. That said, being able to put a hand on someone's shoulder, hug them or kiss them would help get us through these isolating times. Researchers have found that touch is key to human well-being. Not only does this ability affect the way we communicate and demonstrate our bonds with others, touch also has profound affects on mental and physical health. Psychological research over the past decades has determined that touch communicates many emotions. Touch soothes and shows compassion. This can reduce stress and anxiousness with positive impacts on cardiovascular stress. Touch shows love and leads to the release of the hormone oxytocin, the love or cuddle hormone. When under threat or extreme stress, touch can reduce these discomforts. A touch by one person can lead to reciprocal touching. In short, touching communicates feelings even without seeing facial expression or hearing vocalizations.

That brings up another aspect of communication that is challenging humans these days. Smiles and facial expressions communicate many concepts, but with masks these are hidden to some extent. People have to work harder to use vocal inflection and eye expression to send intended messages. The recipient also has to work more to interpret the reduced visual, aural and touch cues. Some of this has been written about recently with the use of online meeting software, where viewers have to work harder to find these communication cues. All this extra work in communication makes people very tired since it is a huge job for the brain to parse the bits and pieces.

Over the past 111 days, I've contemplated getting a hazmat suit and hugging all my friends. <smile> The premier has told people to enjoy that  first hug when their household bubbles increased and then when those increased further. I'm still waiting with less patience each day <smile>. There are some great lines to this upbeat blues tune -- lines that fit how I feel quite well. Stay safe. Enjoy!

Hug You, Squeeze You -- Stevie Ray Vaughn