Welcome, 253 new readers from this week!

I do need to warn you, this Habit Example starts heavy, but the ending is light, uplifting, and you’ll love it 🙂

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Almost ALL babies admitted to orphanages in the 1800s died before the age of two.

Despite being properly fed, cleaned, and all basic needs met, the death rate was quite literally 100% in all New York orphanages (except for one).

What claimed the life of so many innocent babies?

Marasmus: a greek word that essentially means “to waste away”.

The problem was Luther Emmett Holt Sr.

A professor of pediatrics at the time who preached that “tender love and care” to children was un-scientific, and that holding babies was “spoiling them”.

These poor children were literally starving to death by a lack of maternal love.

~600 years earlier, the Emperor of Germany conducted his own experiment.

He wanted to know what language children would spontaneously speak if they were never spoken to. Hebrew? Latin? Arab?

The answer, he found out, was silence - all those children died as well.

Simply feeding, clothing, and changing diapers doesn’t cut it for babies.

And it doesn’t cut it for you or I either.

Imagine going the rest of your life never being touched by another human.

Set aside romantics - a handshake, a high five, a bear hug from an old friend.

Our souls still yearn to be loved and to feel it through touch.

Research from Dr. Christy Kane found that college students who had 8 hugs a day, for 8 seconds each, noticed measurably lower rates of anxiety and depression after just two weeks.

She also notes various health benefits from other research on hugs:

• Lower stress

• Boosted immune system

• Lower heart rates

• Lower blood pressure

• Decreased chronic pain

All from 8-second hugs.

And if you wanna get lovey dovey, The Gottman Institute found that men who kissed their wives for 6 seconds when leaving to and arriving home from work tended to live 4 years longer than the average.

(Did I include this last study solely in hopes my wife would see it and want to kiss me more? Noooooooo. It’s for science)

If you remember nothing else from this post, build this habit:

Hug people.

Touch grass, and hug people.

What ideas popped in your head while reading? Hit reply and let me know!

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- Kody

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P.S. These take 5 hours to research, write, and design. It only takes you 5 seconds to share.