This episode is a part of Caring for Caregivers, a series supported by the Van Leer Foundation.
The Healing Power of Touch for Caregivers
Article by: Emily Brower
As a veteran pre-K teacher and soon to be mother in Arlington, Virginia, Theresa Alexander spends her days guiding children through meltdowns, friendship disagreements, and the difficult work of learning to regulate their emotions.
On one particularly rough stretch, days of rain kept her class cooped up indoors. Then flooding in another classroom sent six more preschoolers her way. The noise level spiked, sensory-sensitive children unraveled, and nap time, a rare moment of silence for teachers, was anything but peaceful.
By the time she sat down for her break, Alexander felt depleted. Looking for a way to steady her own nervous system, she began experimenting with gentle, intentional touch as a new self-care practice. Eight months pregnant, she would put a hand on her belly during these stressful moments, or give herself a hug, to help soothe her at the end of the day.
While working in one of the most emotionally demanding fields there is, these small acts of self-soothing didn’t just calm her in the moment, they reminded her she deserved care, too.
“In traffic I just rubbed my belly,” Alexander shared on The Science of Happiness podcast. “Like we're okay. Today's almost over. We're almost home. You know, we'll try again tomorrow.”
What Happens in the Body
Touch is often framed as something shared with others. Especially in caregiving roles where it is used as a bonding tool for caregivers and children. However, new research suggests that self-soothing touch can be a powerful way for adults to regulate stress, build resilience, and reconnect with themselves, especially in high-demand caregiving professions.
When people are in stressful situations, they tend to release cortisol, a hormone commonly associated with stress. However, research shows that self-soothing touch or receiving a hug from others can have a buffering effect.
“If you look at that cortisol hormone, you see that having a hug from someone else, yeah, it regulates your cortisol, it brings you back to baseline more easily, but so does self-soothing touch,” says psychologist Michael Banissy says. “So having that hug to yourself or other forms can have that benefit.”
Banissy runs a lab at University of Bristol that studies how affectionate communication, like a hug or stroking someone’s hair, can positively impact our mental and physical health. He’s also the author of “Touch Matters: Handshakes, Hugs, and the New Science on How Touch Can Enhance Your Well-Being.”
Research shows that people who engage in hugs regularly tend to have lower levels of chronic inflammation, a condition linked to disease and negative health outcomes. And when we offer that same comforting touch to ourselves, it becomes a powerful way to support our nervous system.
Alternatively, when we experience “touch hunger” or extended periods of time without soothing touch, it can lead to a range of negative mental health outcomes, including more loneliness, anxiety, and depression, as well as physical pain and poor sleep quality.
“You might have touch in your life, but are you getting the amount of supportive touch that you really desire?” Banissy says.
Self-Soothing Touch for Caregivers
For caregivers, touch can be essential for reducing stress and remaining fully present in their caregiving.
A study from researcher Aljoscha Dreisoerner found that just 20 seconds of soothing self-touch can lower stress hormones just as much as getting a hug from a stranger.
UC Berkeley researcher Eli Susman developed a micro-practice rooted in this research: you gently place your hands on your stomach or heart, and then for 20 seconds offer yourself warmth and self-compassionate thoughts. Caregivers are often so accustomed to using touch to soothe others—but this practice gently invites them to turn that comfort inward, to receive the care they so often give.
According to Susman, placing a hand on your heart or giving yourself a reassuring hug, may foster greater self-compassion.
“If you have a strong habit of practicing self-compassionate touch, then you might be more likely to practice it and experience self-compassion in your life,” Susman says. “Even when you don't necessarily feel like doing so, which is often the times when we need it most.”
For parents and caregivers in high stress environments, especially those working with young children, taking the time to focus on your sense of touch can be highly beneficial. To become more comfortable and consistent with practicing self-soothing touch, Susman recommends creating a noticeable cue for yourself that can be incorporated into your daily routine. For example, allotting a designated time to check in with yourself after getting dressed in the morning, while having your daily coffee, or sitting at a stoplight.
“Find a time in your day where you're not going to feel rushed, where it's going to be very obvious that now is the time to practice and that you can actually get yourself to do that,” Susman says.
Practicing self-compassion is exactly what Alexander began doing during stressful moments on her commute or chaotic days in the classroom. By gently placing a hand on her belly and taking controlled conscious breaths, she was able to calm her nervous system and remind herself that she was doing okay.
While practicing self-soothing touch might seem like something that must only be done in private, it can come in many forms: placing a hand on your heart during a difficult meeting, giving yourself a quick embrace before entering the classroom, or gently stroking your arm during moments of overwhelm.
“My hope is that one day it won't be something that people might feel embarrassed about,” Sussman says. “It might just be like, you know, scratching your head or tying your shoes. It's just something that you do, like brushing your teeth.”
The Power of Massage
In addition to incorporating more self-soothing techniques into her life, Alexander and her partner practiced giving each other massages, which activates the vagus nerve, increases serotonin and elevates oxytocin in the body.
“Since I'm pregnant, he would rub my belly,” Alexander says. “I just had him put his hands under the belly and kinda lift it and rock me back and forth. And that was perfect 'cause it took some of the weight of her off me and then I was like, ‘Oh, okay. I feel safe in this embrace and this is just peaceful.'"
With her first child due soon, Alexander is already imagining how touch will shape her parenting. She grew up in a physically affectionate family and plans to raise her daughter the same way.
“ I think I'm gonna like the skin-to-skin just as much as she does,” Alexander says.
Research shows that mothers who practice skin-to-skin contact with their babies are less likely to experience post-partum depression. Additionally, studies have shown that elderly people experienced greater benefits when they massaged babies compared to when they received massages themselves from other adults.
”If you give affection to somebody else, whether that's touch, whether that's sending a supportive message,” Banissy says. “The benefits of that to health and wellbeing are quite often as equivalent as receiving them.”
Although not everyone can rely on others for soothing touch or they aren’t drawn to physical contact, there are other ways to incorporate touch without massages or having to interact with other people.
“Even watching videos of people being given soothing and supportive touch is helpful,” Banissey says. “If you don’t consider yourself a touchy-feely person, you can start small, playing with the beads on a bracelet, noticing the fabric of your clothes.”
Alexander also hopes to keep using soothing touch as her daughter grows, teaching her to hug herself and speak kindly to herself when she’s upset. Even in the teen years, she wants to make sure her child feels physically loved.
”When you become a teenager and your body is changing, that's when you need that physical assurance more,” Alexander says. “Even though she might pull away, I think one thing I plan on being cognizant of is to still try to give her that physical affection.”
Self-Soothing Touch in Action
The massages from her husband and Alexander’s own micro-practices of self-soothing touch inspired her to take these practices into the classroom.
To help her pre-schoolers with emotional regulation and self-awareness, she had them practice putting their hands on their bellies, taking deep breaths, and thinking happy thoughts.
“They really liked it,” Alexander says. “They took to it so fast and then they also really liked giving a hug to themselves.”
As they practiced the self-hug, Alexander would ask them to say nice things to themselves like, “how can I be a friend to myself?” and “I love myself.”
She found that these small practices helped her students to ground themselves, especially for her students that had more difficult behavioral struggles.
Providing them with the tools they could use even when Alexander isn’t available has allowed them the opportunity to have autonomy over their own emotions and learn how to regulate and respond accordingly to their own meltdowns and frustrations.
“ A lot of times I just give them big squeezes, and just big hugs, and I rub their back,” Alexander says. “Giving them a tool that they can use, especially if I'm not immediately there or my hands are full with lunch. Giving them the power and skillset to be able to help themselves has been fantastic.”
Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.
Description: Research shows that simple practices such as self-hugs, soothing touch, and hand-to-heart can calm the nervous system, supporting caregivers and the children in their care.
Summary: From parents to teachers, caregiving can be overwhelming and exhausting. This episode of The Science of Happiness dives into simple touch-based strategies that promote calm, reduce stress, and foster stronger connections. Researchers share how even brief moments of self-soothing or supportive touch can improve mental and physical health for caregivers and children.
How To Do This Practice:
- Sit or stand comfortably and take a moment to notice your body. Soften your jaw and shoulders. If it feels safe, close your eyes or lower your gaze.
- Place one hand on your belly, both hands over your heart, or give yourself a self-hug— whatever feels most comfortable and natural. Let the weight of your hands feel steady and supportive.
- Take a slow inhale through your nose and a longer exhale through your mouth.
- Silently repeat a kind phrase to yourself, like “How can I be a friend to myself today?” and “It’s okay to make mistakes.”
- Feel the warmth and weight of your hands. On each exhale, invite a little ease into your face, shoulders, belly, and back. Notice any tiny shift toward calm.
- Wrap your arms around your torso and apply comfortable pressure, finishing with a gentle self-hug before returning to your day.
Today’s Guests:
THERESA ALEXANDER is a pre-K teacher based in Arlington, Virginia, with nearly 20 years of teaching experience. She’s also a new mother.
MICHAEL BANISSY is a psychology professor at University of Bristol and the author of “Touch Matters: Handshakes, Hugs, and the New Science on How Touch Can Enhance Your Well-Being.”
Learn more about Michael here: https://www.banissy.com/
Read Michael’s book here: https://tinyurl.com/327e6b9x
Related The Science of Happiness episodes:
Caring for Caregivers Series: https://tinyurl.com/4k2hv47j
How Holding Yourself Can Reduce Stress: https://tinyurl.com/2hvhkwe6
How To Tune Out The Noise: https://tinyurl.com/4hhekjuh
Related Happiness Breaks:
The Healing Power of Your Own Touch: https://tinyurl.com/y4ze59h8
Make Uncertainty Part of the Process: https://tinyurl.com/234u5ds7
Tap into the Joy That Surrounds You: https://tinyurl.com/2pb8ye9x
Additional Resources:
Family Well-Being for the Greater Good: A science-based workbook for people supporting parents: https://tinyurl.com/4vapdx6c
Self-Compassion Meditation for Parents: https://tinyurl.com/mstk2d4e
The Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Touch: https://tinyurl.com/s9jbkzt8
Our Caring for Caregivers series is supported by the Van Leer Foundation, an independent Dutch organization working globally to foster inclusive societies where all children and communities can flourish.
To discover more insights from Van Leer Foundation and others on this topic, visit Early Childhood Matters, the leading platform for advancing topics on early childhood development and connecting diverse voices and ideas across disciplines that support the wellbeing of babies, toddlers and caregivers around the globe.
Tell us about your experience with this practice. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or follow on Instagram @HappinessPod.
Help us share The Science of Happiness! Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap
Transcription:
DACHER KELTNER: This episode is a part of Caring for Caregivers, a series supported by the Van Leer Foundation.
THERESA ALEXANDER: Last week it rained for like way over a day, so we couldn't go out, and then we had some flooding in one of our preschool classes. So we had to then take those kids and split them up between my class and their class. So we just had six extra kids in class, and then that added to one just the chaos, the sound chaos alone, being stuck inside with way more kids, and then that extra sensory also set off our ones who are sensory sensitive, so like, then we're getting meltdowns left and right, and then nap time was not much napping, which is, I think we need nap time as caretakers, they do, I'm just like, no, I just need quiet for a little bit. When I went on my break, I did, like, deep breaths and just rubbed my belly and were like, okay, we're okay. Today's almost over. We're almost home. We'll try again tomorrow.
DACHER KELTNER: From skin to skin contact at birth to gentle caresses in adulthood, touch is a vital human need. The benefits start from the moment we're born and continue to shape how we connect with others and manage our emotions. Welcome to the Science of Happiness. I'm Dacher Keltner, touch and caregiving is an understudied area, but recent research shows it can strengthen the bond between caregiver and child even before birth. It can also be beneficial for caregivers themselves. Our guest this week, Theresa Alexander, is a pre-K teacher based in Arlington, Virginia, with nearly 20 years of teaching experience. She's also pregnant with her first child. She tried a series of practices around soothing touch for our show. Later, we hear from psychologist Michael Banissy on how we can use touch to tap into a greater sense of ease and calm, even when we're alone.
MICHAEL BANISSY: Having a hug from someone else, it regulates your cortisol. It brings you back to baseline more easily, but so does self soothing touch, so having that hug to yourself or other forms can have that benefit.
DACHER KELTNER: More after these messages from our sponsors.
I'm Dacher Keltner, welcome back to the Science of Happiness. Today, we're exploring the power of touch to support caregivers. Pre K teacher Theresa Alexander joins us to share her experiences trying out touch based interventions to self soothe and reduce stress. Teresa, thanks so much for joining us on the show.
THERESA ALEXANDER: No, thank you for having me.
DACHER KELTNER: What did the work as a caregiver when you started to do it taking care of these little kids? What did it bring out in you? Or how did you know that you really had this touch for it?
THERESA ALEXANDER: Because I'm very physically affectionate. I grew up in an extremely physically affectionate household, so like hugging and kissing boo boos was very, very natural to me. And then I think I've always been very creative. So having like each kid every day is like a puzzle to try to figure out how to meet their needs. Like they all have different needs. They all are at different levels. They all respond to things differently. To me, somebody who loves figuring things out and problems and puzzles, it was like the merging of those two, plus hugs.
DACHER KELTNER: Gotta have those hugs.
THERESA ALEXANDER: Yes.
DACHER KELTNER: Theresa, I remember, you know, I teach at college, teach these 20 year olds, and my daughter's teachers in pre K and early in the grammar school years would ask me to come in and teach. And I was like, Ah, this is easy, you know. And I go in there, and there'd be this little circle rug with five year olds on it, and it was exhausting and chaotic and stressful. You know? I know that fits with scientific evidence too. Survey studies showing that pre K teachers have twice as much stress as similar working adults. How do you cope with the stress of being a pre K teacher?
THERESA ALEXANDER: A lot of it is choosing your battles, but my biggest thing is like you have to be able to regulate yourself. So usually, when they're doing things that are very stressful for us, or having meltdowns, or having these huge emotions, you just kind of become this like board where you're like, okay, I'm gonna let them get that out. I'm not gonna bring chaos to their chaos. I'm gonna bring calm to their chaos.
DACHER KELTNER: Such wisdom. In the spirit of self care, you tried a few practices with the pre K kids that you teach around touch, this amazing way in which we can soothe and reward and encourage and form connections with people through touch. And one was the belly circle micro practice. Tell us about it.
THERESA ALEXANDER: So the first time, I was like, we're gonna try something of how to calm ourselves down when we get upset. So it's like we're just gonna put our hand on our belly. Remember, the one thing we can do, we can rub our bellies, and then we can put one hand on our belly, one on our heart, and give ourselves love. You can say, I love myself so much. I was like deep breaths, and we're just gonna go around and we're just gonna think happy thoughts in our belly. Let's think calm. Take a big breath, see how that feels to us, and then one big breath, and then we feel calm again, okay? And then let's give ourselves a hug. Oh, big, tight hug. And say, How can I be a friend to myself today? Do you feel so much better? I feel so much better. Thank you for practicing that with me. I think this has been great. Giving them a tool that they can use, especially if I'm not immediately there, or my hands are full with lunch, or giving them the power and skill set to be able to help themselves has been fantastic.
DACHER KELTNER: Exactly, right? So you've got a lot going on in your life, Theresa, you're got a stressful job, no doubt, underpaid.
THERESA ALEXANDER: Oh, definitely.
Oh, yeah, we could talk about that for a long time, and you got a young baby coming pretty soon. Yeah, caregivers face so much stress, and in fact, one of the classic populations we study in the stress literature is caregivers. Theresa, you tried this really interesting new practice that's been developed by Eli Sussman here at UC Berkeley, sort of a self compassionate touch practice where you place your hand on your belly and then you contemplate warmth and self compassionate thoughts towards yourself for 20 seconds, tell us, sort of give us a stream of consciousness of how you did that and what it was like for you.
THERESA ALEXANDER: So that, to me, is very calming. I think that's one thing where being a caretaker is talking to yourself nicely almost comes more naturally because you're teaching the kids how to speak with empathy and love. So putting the hand on the belly and then the heart, and just like I would say what I would have them say, which is, like, it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to have big feelings and need to calm down. And I love myself because, you know, and choose something that you're good at. It's like, I'm really good at this. So at first it feels funny doing it as an adult. I think it came a little easier to me, because these are things I use with the children all the time. But it does work like it, I think just taking a second, just to, like, think nice things about yourself and put that on your heart. It definitely feels like there's something that helps when you hold your heart and are nice to yourself, that you're just like, okay, there's a lot going on, but I'm okay right now. I'm doing a good job. I tried it when I was driving, which a lot of us live in cities where it's just insanity, and Arlington is definitely one of them. And I was just waiting there, and I just started rubbing my tummy, and I was like, I feel this actually works. This works with driving anxiety like that. I was kind of surprised how much I felt my stress drop in those moments, I was like, oh, that's funny.
DACHER KELTNER: Absolutely, just like the hand on the heart and on the stomach, it actually activates these C tactile, efferent cells in your skin, which activate vagus nerve response and oxytocin release, just calming the body down. It's powerful stuff. I wanted to ask you. You know you've got a lot of stress in your life as a caregiver. You know your work is hard and you're commuting and you've got a child on the way. And you also, not only did you as a caregiver, bring this touch into your own life with self touching exercises, but you also practiced it with your partner, including a 20 minute massage.
THERESA ALEXANDER: Yeah.
DACHER KELTNER: I love the science of massage. It's so important. You know, what an easy pathway to well being. It elevates serotonin, oxytocin, this chemical that makes us trust people more and reduces cortisol. Activates the vagus nerve, which we talk a lot about on the show, and with respect to pregnant women, they often feel less physical pain. So what was that like? What'd you do?
THERESA ALEXANDER: That was nice? It's nice for somebody else to kind of do it, especially somebody who naturally does bring calm to me. So he would rub my shoulders a little, and then, since I'm pregnant, he would rub my belly, and that was super calming to me, especially because he talks to the baby when he does it, and she loves hearing his voice. She'll roll around a bit whenever she hears his voice, close and then for a little bit, I just had him put his hands under the belly, and kind of lift it and, like, rock me back and forth. And that was perfect, because it took some of the weight of her off me. And then I was like, oh, okay, I feel safe in this embrace. And this is just peaceful. The tightness loosens up in my body, especially around the belly area and the back, because my muscles can't adjust fast enough for her to grow. Like that was, like, super relaxing to me. Is like, just having these muscles that are sore and him kind of taking over and, like, with my back, rubbing those out, and with the baby just holding that weight and rocking me just I could have, like, fallen asleep. I was like, Oh, I just feel safe now. I feel connected to you. You feel the stress just kind of melt away. And you're like, okay, I don't have to think about anything right now. Just relax.
DACHER KELTNER: I'm curious, Teresa, will these touch exercises for yourself as a caregiver, and how you teach these pre K kids, your partnership? Will they be part of how you handle the stress of your life going forward?
THERESA ALEXANDER: I definitely think so. I think it'll feel a little funny at first, rubbing a belly without anybody in there, but especially like the self hug, that one I really like is you can really give yourself pressure for that, and I think I'll definitely continue with the kids teaching them this, because anytime we can give them tools to help them self regulate and help feel in control, makes our jobs easier, and it makes their lives easier.
DACHER KELTNER: Yeah, I remember my daughters, Natalie and Serafina. I had all these games, you know, right on my shoulders. I had this log game where I'd lie on the ground, and they were like little four year olds and two year olds, and they would walk on my back and I try to knock them over, you know, or sort of, and it was just this wonderful, playful game that was really centered on touch. So you've got this next big life event coming. You're going to have a baby, your first child, and touch. You know, the evolutionary story of touch is a lot of it comes out of that early caregiving, just skin to skin and eye contact and breastfeeding and sleeping near the child and holding and, you know, I remember carrying my daughters on my shoulders for years and just thinking, this is the best thing I do in life. And I'm curious, how do you think touch will play a role in your parenting as you head into this next adventure?
THERESA ALEXANDER: Such a big role like so I can't even imagine the second that like she reaches for me, like, That's it, and I used to, especially at first, because they're so used to being inside of you all the time that it's like they just want to be with you all the time. And I'm going to let her just be that skin to skin. I think I'm gonna like the skin of skin just as much as she does. I definitely will raise her just to be like she's being born into a very physically affectionate family. I'm definitely gonna work on the belly rubs and I think the self hugs, especially once she starts pre K and I'm not there for her to run to. It's like, okay, well, you know, we're gonna hug ourselves and be like, it's okay. I could be a friend to myself, you know, like I'm doing okay.
DACHER KELTNER: It's so great to talk to you, Theresa, about the work you're doing with pre K and these touch practices and interventions, and hearing about your partnership. And I wish you the best of luck with that great experiment you have coming your way, which is your daughter. So good luck.
THERESA ALEXANDER: Thank you. Thank you so much. This is great.
DACHER KELTNER: Up next, neuroscientist Michael Banissy reveals the surprising ways touch shapes our bodies and minds and why that's especially important for caregivers.
MICHAEL BANISSY: Having a hug from someone else, yeah, it regulates your cortisol. It brings you back to baseline more easily, but so does self soothing touch. So having that hug to yourself or other forms can have that benefit
DACHER KELTNER: The science of touch after this break.
Hi everybody. This is Dacher Keltner. Welcome back to The Science of Happiness. We've been looking at how supportive touch can help caregivers feel calmer and more grounded. Imagine a lab where everyone is studying how affectionate communication like a hug or stroking someone's hair can save our mental and physical health.
MICHAEL BANISSY: One journalist described us as scientists who stroke. You know, we've got an awful lot of hairbrushes. You know, our lab is very much. It's a kind of fun, tactile environment to a degree. So we will do studies on slow, gentle, stroking, caressing. We also do studies on hugging.
DACHER KELTNER: Michael Banissy is a psychology professor at the University of Bristol and the author of touch matters, handshakes, hugs and the new science on how touch can enhance your well being. Michael studies how touch can shape our health down to our immune function. He told us about a striking study out of Carnegie Mellon where researchers expose participants to a common cold virus in their lab by using nasal drops. The surprising part, people who got more frequent hugs in the days leading up to the study were less likely to get sick.
MICHAEL BANISSY: So in short, people who hugged more regularly were less likely, as it were, to get sick from the infection. That was quite startling, because actually, I've always thought, well, hugging something I value in my life, but never really thought it would impact my physical health, but that kind of precursor of hugging being this supportive gesture, and that certainly did seem to be an important part of it when they looked at, you know, why was this happening? That social support provided by hugging was important.
DACHER KELTNER: And it goes both ways. Caregivers who provide skin to skin contact with babies are impacted too. In one study, elderly people experience greater benefits when they massage babies compared to when they receive massages themselves from other adults. Research shows mothers who do skin to skin with babies are also less likely to experience postpartum depression.
MICHAEL BANISSY: There is now work coming out also about fathers and child as well, showing that skin to skin contact can not only benefit the infants, but it can also benefit the anxiety in the fathers and the perceived bond between the child and the father. So there is evidence like that as well where it's a kind of reciprocal benefit to both infant and parent.
DACHER KELTNER: Michael says self soothing touch can be just as effective at calming you down.
MICHAEL BANISSY: One of the famous studies on this is actually to do with hugging. If you put people in a stressful situation, you tend to see a release of cortisol, which is a hormone involved in stress. Commonly, if you look at that cortisol hormone, you see that having a hug from someone else, yeah, it regulates your cortisol. It brings you back to baseline more easily, but so does self soothing touch. So having that hug to yourself or other forms can have that benefit. Pick a type of touch that is supportive and self soothing to you.
DACHER KELTNER: Michael says even watching videos of people receiving soothing and supportive touch is helpful.
MICHAEL BANISSY: When we see somebody being touched, we activate similar parts of our brain as when we're touched ourselves. So there's a part of the brain called the somatosensory cortex. It's like your main sensory hub for all things tactile. If, for instance, you're touched on your face, you might activate a face part of the somatosensory cortex. But if you see somebody else touched on the face, you're likely to activate a very similar brain region. And although you might not feel it, you're effectively mapping it. You know what you're seeing from somebody else onto you. Part of the reason, potentially why watching videos over people being touched might actually also be, you know, a source of comfort for people, because, you know, it does kind of map onto their own experiences as well.
DACHER KELTNER: And if you don't consider yourself a touchy feely person, you can start small, like playing with the beads of a bracelet, or feeling the fabric on your clothes.
MICHAEL BANISSY: If you've got different textures, and you can just spend that time exploring those textures, feeling them against the skin. You know, feeling them with your fingertips. It's just going to kind of open your one, your focus in that present, right in that moment. And two, you know, hopefully build that habit of picking up on touch. Anything that allows you to focus a bit more into your sense of touch will hopefully raise your awareness of it.
DACHER KELTNER: There are many ways caregivers can reconnect with themselves, and we've explored some of them on the show, like seeking moments of awe, the calming power of lullabies, and, of course, the healing effects of touch. On our next episode of The Science of Happiness, we'll look at how intentional movement and dance can support caregivers and bring them closer to the people they care for. Thanks for joining us on The Science of Happiness. This episode is produced by Kate Parkinson Morgan. Our research assistants are Emily Brower and Dasha Zerboni. Our producer is Truc Nguyen. Our sound designer is Jennie Cataldo of Accompany Studios. Our executive producer Shuka Kalantari, I'm Dacher Keltner. Have a great day.
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