CEO of Noel Asmar Group

The Touch Test

By Claudia Hammon: BBC Radio 4.

Don’t underestimate the power of touch. It can convey emotion faster than words. It can affect how we feel, who we like and dislike, and even what we buy. In contemporary society, some people feel starved of touch while others feel that we touch too often.

But it’s an under-researched field and so to fill in some of the gaps BBC Radio 4 launched The Touch Test in collaboration with Wellcome Collection and psychologists at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Here are seven things you should know about touch… Research has shown that physical contact with other people can reduce the effect of stress on our bodies. In an experiment conducted in 2013 people were asked to watch a five-minute romantic video while holding hands with their partner, followed by a 20second hug. After that, they were given just two minutes to prepare a speech which was recorded and then played back to them. Tests like this are designed to be so stressful that usually the blood pressure and the heart rates of the people taking part shoot up. But holding hands and having a hug from their partner meant they only rose half as much as usual.

1.Touch is the first sense to develop 4. We use different kinds of nerve fibers to detect different kinds of touch

In the womb, a foetus is thought to experience touch before it can hear, smell or taste. As the pregnancy progresses, twins even reach out to touch each other. After birth, we know that “kangaroo care” – where the baby is held close to a caregiver’s skin – helps the baby to feel calmer and to sleep better. Physical contact with other people can reduce the effect of stress on our bodies.

2.The skin is the body’s largest sense organ

Human skin covers a surface area of at least two square metres. Sensors in the skin allow us to experience pressure, vibration, and pain as well as temperature and physical pleasure. These sensors adapt rapidly to light touch, which means that within moments of putting on our clothes, we forget that they’re touching our skin. Fast nerve fibers respond when our skin is pricked or poked, relaying messages to an area of the brain called the somatosensory cortex. But in recent years, the neuroscientist Prof Francis McGlone has been studying another type of nerve fiber (known as afferent C fibers) which conducts information at around a fiftieth of the speed of the other kind. They relay the information to a different part of the brain called the insular cortex – an area that also processes taste and emotion. So why has this slow system developed as well as the fast one? Francis McGlone believes slow fibers are there to promote social bonding through gentle stroking of the skin.

5. Even a simple touch on the arm can convey a range of different emotions

Experiments have shown that people can convey a list of emotions to a stranger through nothing more than a touch on the arm. If their arm was stroked or pressed or squeezed, a stranger could correctly identify the emotions the person was trying to communicate up to 83% of the time, with emotions ranging from anger, fear, and disgust to love, gratitude, and sympathy.

6. We have rules which permit us to us touch each other more in some situations than others

Strong cultural norms tell when it’s OK to touch each other. When you see a colleague in the office you might well greet them differently from when you bump into them on a night out. And in cafés, for example, there doesn’t tend to be much interpersonal touch, while at an airport people behave rather differently. In an observational study conducted in airport departure and arrivals lounges, 60% of people touch each other physically, hugging, kissing or shaking hands. 7. In our digital age touch still matters when it comes to shopping

Although we live in a visual age where our attention is grabbed by how things look, we still care about how things feel. Despite the convenience, only 9% of shopping is done online. Is this partly because we want to touch items before we buy? Marketing professor Joann Peck spent hours observing the way consumers behave in shops. She found a lot of individual variation in how much we touch the goods laid out in front of us. Some people just look, but others, the “high need for touch” people, are so keen to touch before they buy they tear packets open so that they can feel what’s inside. Texture affects our purchasing decisions too. We like objects we can imagine gripping in our hands, such as the traditional glass Coke bottle or deodorant with indentations where you hold it.

By Heather Mikesell - Well Defined Media The Wellness Questionnaire with Noel Asmar:

Noel Asmar, President and CEO of Noel Asmar Group Discover how this Canadian designer maintains her personal wellbeing

Noel Asmar has always had an eye for design. She founded the Noel Asmar Group in 2002 as SpaUniforms.com, the first company to provide stylish uniforms to spa and wellness professionals online, elevating their look with high-performance fabrics and styles. She didn’t stop there though. This female founder then went on to launch two more successful brands, PedicureBowls.com and Asmar Equestrian, a consumer brand that also outfitted the Canadian Equestrian Team for the Rio 2016 Olympics. In 2019, she launched a line of sustainable fabric collections made from recycled plastic. Here, she shares how she stays healthy and the best piece of wellness advice she has ever received.

What does wellness mean to you? Wellness for me is about being in tune with my own energy and the energy of those around me—being kind, sensitive, and respectful to myself. Understanding where I’m at in a specific moment and recognizing where I’m at in a specific stage of life. It’s taken time and experience to get there, maybe it comes with age. I also think good food plays a huge role in wellness and for me. It makes me feel very grounded, especially being in my garden, being able to grow my own veggies, and cooking for those I love.

What are your favorite things to do to maintain your personal wellbeing? I am creative person at heart with a deep connection to family, close friends, and animals. They are my daily dose of vitamins. I also highly value my morning routine. It’s sacred. Each morning – whether a workday or a weekend, I enjoy a coffee with my hubby in bed before our day starts, and then I take my time with a beautiful skincare routine. It feels good to start each day taking care in some way.

Is there a specific fitness activity that you love and why? I recently bought a Peloton and love it. Sometimes we focus on carving out long stretches of time to work out, but even those 15-minute rides do wonders for you both physically and mentally. You have to fit it in where you can, and remember, any movement is good movement. What is your favorite healthy food, and do you have a favorite way of preparing it? I love tabbouleh. It’s Lebanese parsley salad that is fresh and delicious and a mega source of antioxidants. It brings me back to the years I lived in Lebanon in my 20s.

What is your greatest wellness achievement? Raising our children to love and live an active lifestyle in an era that is so focused on digital pastimes. I love seeing my kids getting involved and finding their passions and hobbies that they enjoy. I’m also incredibly proud of how The Noel Asmar Group has continued to grow and our continued commitment to sustainability. When we talk about wellness, we look at how it impacts both people and the planet. We’re working very hard to offer more and more styles that not only look and feel good, empowering the people who wear our pieces, but that have been created in such a way that they can actually do good for the planet by utilizing recycled materials and supporting reforestation projects.

What person in wellness do you most admire and why? My parents both placed a lot of emphasis on fresh food. They liked to cook, used fresh ingredients, lots of herbs and spices, and inspired me to find my own passion in cooking. I also admire Susan Harmsworth. I look up to her for her commitment to creating true spaces of wellness. She’s vibrant and very passionate and educated—it radiates from her as a result. Another person I admire is architectural wellness guru is Clodagh. She’s applied sustainable practices since she began her career. She’s a forward thinker and has used her creative talents to elevate the human experience by considering how materials in interior design and architecture impact our wellbeing.

What is the best piece of wellness advice you have ever received and from whom? Celeste Hilling from Skin Authority told me how integral vitamin D is to our overall health and wellness. Living in Canada, where we are severely vitamin D deficient, I had no idea how it impacts hormones (hormone D25 lives in our skin—and when hit with the sun, it produces more vitamin D). I didn’t realize how critical it is to understand this and ensure our children, family, and friends understand it. It’s possible to bring our levels up and correct the issue, ultimately contributing to overall mental and physical wellness.

What is your idea of balanced healthy happiness? Sleep, love, connection to nature, and kindness to oneself. You don’t need to worry about following “the rules” just follow your heart and your intuition.

What do you think is the most overused word or words in wellness? The term “green” is everywhere these days, but it’s lost a lot of meaning. It’s great that brands want to “go green” but there needs to be actions behind that, things that are tangible and can be measured when it comes to sustainability, being better for the environment, and better for customers.

Do you have a secret health or wellness tip you would like to share? Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. It takes nine to 10 hours a day to feel restored!

What is your go-to for de-stressing? Time outdoors. Being outside, even in my own back yard, helps me to refocus and get away from being in front of a screen or on the phone. Fresh air does wonders.

What aspect of your wellbeing do you struggle with the most, or would most like to improve? Finding peace with my eating. As hormones change, my body is changing—and what worked in my 20s and 30s doesn’t work in my late 40s, but that’s okay!

How do you celebrate small victories? Acknowledge them. I think it’s important to take a moment to celebrate when we achieve a goal or learn something new, no matter how small those things may be, and then share what we’ve learned with others. Knowledge is power, and it’s meant to be shared.