We are born with the need to touch and be touched, skin-to-skin. If you were not held and touched with love as you were growing up, then this might be a very deep need for you. But even if you were held and touched with love, you still need it today. It is a basic need.

But not all touch meets that need.

There are two kinds of touch:

• The kind of touch that has the energy of love
• The kind of touch that has the energy of neediness
   

The Needy Touch

When I was growing up, I didn't like being touched by my mother. Her touch was not loving and comforting. Instead, it was a pull from her to fill her emptiness. When she touched me, it felt like she was sucking the life out of me, and in a sense she was. Not having her own loving energy due to her inability to connect with her self and with her spiritual source of love, she was always pulling on others for the love she needed. Her touch was smothering rather than nurturing.

My father's touch was more nurturing when I was little, but when I reached adolescence, his touch always had a sexual energy. Rather than nurturing, it was needy - and scary. There is nothing nurturing about sexual energy from a father.

Many of my clients, especially women, end up sexualizing their need for touch, thinking that having sex will meet their need to be held and touched. Or, they end up giving themselves up and going along with sex in the hope that the holding and touching will meet their need. But it never does. Sex, and the need to be lovingly held and touched, are two different experiences, and one does not replace the other.

It is unfortunate that it so hard to find the unconditionally loving touch that we all need.
 

The Loving Touch

The loving touch is the touch that comes from a place within that is full of love - a place that doesn't need anything back. It is a touch that is a conduit for the unconditional energy of love that is God.

This is the touch we need. It is a healing touch, a touch that says, "You matter. You have value. You are a beautiful child of God, and I am blessed to be able to be a conduit of love to you."

This is what loving parents who are connected with themselves and their source give to their children. Their children are truly blessed to receive this love, for it is a part of the foundation of their sense of worth.

It's Never Too Late

Many of us never received this love through touch, but it is never too late. However, before you can benefit from this touch, and bring into your life people who touch with love rather than with neediness, you need to learn three things:

• You need to be aware that you need this kind of touch
• You need to learn the difference between loving touch and needy touch
• You need to learn how to love yourself enough to begin to take responsibility for your own feelings, so that you are not a bottomless pit of neediness

This is where Inner Bonding comes in, which teaches you how love yourself and take responsibility for your feelings. As you learn this, you will begin to draw people into your life who can share love with you, rather than just trying to get love.

Learn to connect with your spiritual guidance with Unlocking Your Inner Wisdom, A 30-Day at-home Experience with Dr. Margaret Paul.

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