As a second-generation skincare developer and mother of two, I think a lot about the importance of touch in our lives. What concerns me is how friendly or loving touch is disappearing from our priorities, and what that’s doing to our families and culture.
I believe that bringing touch back into our children’s lives is the first step towards creating a healthier, safer future. What began as a simple desire to bring joy to a few lives with BEB Organic, has evolved into a brand mission to share the healing power of touch with the world, especially preemie families.
Too many people are lacking touch in their lives, and the distance between us keeps growing.
We have our own bedrooms, cars, and devices. We even have our own personal pizzas. While some of that is a sign of progress, there’s a downside to so much distance.
Many of our children are detached – from themselves, each other, and from the people around them. Alarming statistics tell us that more and more teens suffer from depression and anxiety, resort to suicide, and – as we see all too frequently –feel the only way to relieve their emotions is through controlling others with a mass shooting in their school.
I was visiting the Amber palace in Jaipur, India when the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting happened in Parkland, Florida, and seventeen people were murdered by a child. Our nation was crushed… again. The tour guide looked up after reading the news from his phone, eyes brimming with tears, and said in the saddest whisper, “I don’t get it. How can children do this to each other? We’ve never had children who kill each other here. I just don’t understand.”
Around the world we see people holding hands, hugging, connecting with each other in a much more physical way than most Americans.
On a normal day in a café in France, studies show that friends will touch each other about 110 times in an hour. In America, they only touch twice. In India – and many places all over the world – men walk along holding hands as they swap stories. They sit with their arms draped around each other in casual conversation.
Most Americans think that’s weird. But is it? Are they the weird ones? Maybe it’s us.
People who touch have more health and joy than those who don’t. They have more compassion for others, cooperate more, and feel less stressed.
By giving parents the right skincare products and training to connect with their babies, I want to leave behind something better for our children than what we know today. As founder of BEB Organic, I believe the first step toward healing is to connect through touch.
Touch is something we feel with our heart and our hands at the same time. Hug a newfound friend. Cuddle with your baby. Share a personal pizza. Whatever you do, break the pattern of isolation. I'm asking you to stand up and fight for a brighter future by engaging in touch. Every day you can make a change.
I believe in you. I believe in us.
