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104. The Loss of Touch

Aug 11, 2020

Gregg Levoy is a lecturer and seminar leader in the areas of business, education, and human potential. As a speaker, Gregg has delivered workshops and keynotes for organizations such as Microsoft and the Smithsonian. He is an eloquent writer whose books, Vital Signs: Discovering and Sustaining Your Passion for Life and Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life, reflect his mission of helping people find and sustain their passions in life and has been rated among the Workforce Information Group’s Top 20 Career Publications.

In this episode, Gregg and I explore the challenges and grief we experience in the time of COVID-19 due to the loss of touch. We discuss how the pandemic has us in “stranger danger” mode and how avoiding physical touch in light of social distancing can affect us mentally and physically. We illustrate what it’s like to experience social distancing for a single person who lives alone and describe alternative ways we can satisfy our need for physical touch while we’re isolated. We also discuss how we, as a society, may need to relearn and re-approach how we consent to physical touch and how we can address the difficult emotions we feel due to the loss of physical connection.

 

 

 

“We’re grieving the loss of physical connection. That arm slung across the shoulder is worth its weight in gold. They’re not just toss-away gestures.” - Gregg Levoy

 

 

 

This week on Relationships! Let’s Talk About It:

 

  • Why the loss of touch during the pandemic is heightened for people who live alone
  • Harlow’s monkey experiment and why physical touch is like a social glue
  • The science of physical touch and how its lack compromises our immune systems
  • Why physical touch is more essential than the other senses
  • Exploring our relationship with touch
  • Alternative means of giving others and ourselves physical touch in light of social and physical distancing
  • The grief we feel over the loss of physical touch
  • How physical and social distancing can benefit the dating scene
  • Why some people aren’t comfortable with physical touch
  • How and why the people in the U.S. were touch-deprived even before the pandemic
  • Learning the ways of consenting to touch in light of COVID-19
  • Being in touch with difficult emotions due to the pandemic, social isolation, and loss of touch

 

 

Related Content:

 

 

 

Connect with Gregg Levoy:

 

 

 

 

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Theme music “These Streets” provided by Adi the Monk