A few months ago, I received a warm and welcoming email from someone from Canada. He had seen a recent video about our professional cuddling practice and wanted to reach out. He’s a corporate guy and asked that his identify remain private. We’ll call him Dave. Dave tells me that cuddling has changed his life and that he enthusiastically supports this growing movement. When I read Dave’s essay below – I knew that he was a kindred spirit. With Dave’s permission, I share with you his musings on hugs, cuddling and experiencing a session with a professional cuddler.

There’s No Poker Face with a Hug

You can learn a great deal about a person from the way they hug.

A hug is, in my opinion, one of the most intimate forms of contact. In European cultures, they think nothing of a kiss, but a hug is reserved as a close, intimate greeting.

When you hug someone, you learn immediately how they truly feel about you. How comfortable they are with you, how much they are willing to share of themselves with you, their general emotional state…But you have to be open to receiving this information, at least on a subconscious level!

A lot of sensory information is exchanged in a 10-second hug – more than in any length of verbal conversation. When you get close enough to someone to hug them, you are also receiving additional sensory information including scent and indeed even audio. Have you ever hugged someone and heard them sigh, or even make the slightest little noise, imperceptible to all others around you – but you heard it, and in that instant you knew this was a great hug? The scent sensation is similarly evasive – but on occasion, you’ll give someone a hug and think, “Wow, they smell great!” That is part of this non-verbal communication that occurs with a simple hug.

There’s the barely-there embrace, where two people quickly wrap their arms around each other, hardly touching any other parts of their bodies together, all the way to the full body embrace, where the hug starts and intensifies steadily as both participants draw each other ever closer, culminating in a big, mutual squeeze, then release.

More Than a Hug: Cuddling

Cuddling is like the ultimate long hug. Imagine carrying that conversation further, in an incredibly intimate way, WITHOUT the overtones of sexuality. In a sexual encounter, both participants are (hopefully) concentrating on helping the other achieve a sexual goal, and once that goal is achieved, it’s done. If one stops and thinks for a moment, it does not necessarily follow that a sexual encounter will be an intimate encounter.

The concept of “platonic intimacy” would seem completely foreign to most. Most would argue that intimacy CANNOT be platonic, and that intimacy and sex are interchangeable terms. For those that realize that is simply not the case, it can be a life-altering revelation.

Cuddling cannot hep but be deeply intimate. However, the participants are not focused on doing everything they can to maximize sexual pleasure – they are instead focused on touch, the smell, the feel of closeness of their cuddle partner, the sighs of contentment and well-being and the small, shy smile that appears when the cuddlers find just that right position and melt into each other. This moment is when the truly wonderful and therapeutic nature of cuddling is realized, when both participants are achieving the mutual benefits of the encounter.

Professional Cuddling Blew My Mind

Some may regard what professional cuddlers provide as a very one-sided experience; you pay a complete stranger to hold you for an hour and that’s that. Where’s the benefit in that, you might ask yourself? Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s one thing to be a great cuddler, but there are things a cuddlee can do to maximize the experience. I’ve learned to be in the moment of the cuddle. When I reach out with my mind, body, spirit and heart, it has been reflected back to me a thousand-fold. Professional cuddlers have the innate ability to instantly make me feel at ease and immediately allow me to reap the myriad benefits of close, caring contact with another human being.

It is a feeling you may never have felt before in your entire life – not even those you thought you were closest to. This is part of why cuddling with a complete stranger WORKS – all you have IS the cuddle! There’s no other pre-existing relationship, expectations or knowledge. Both are focused entirely on maximizing the benefits of the cuddle, and only the cuddle.

Here’s Why I’m a Repeat Customer

You can get to know your professional cuddler over time. As you do, you hone the art of the cuddle with each other. Each successive session can intensify the healing powers of this very underrated and underestimated talent.

Life can be stressful. The ability to truly escape from life and share an hour or two in the embrace of someone who truly wants nothing other than to help you escape is a feeling that cannot be described; It can only be experienced. And only when you experience it for yourself will you truly understand why professional cuddling exists, and why it will exist successfully, for a very, VERY long time.