We’Re In Good Hands
American psychologist Sidney Jourard monitored casual touch among couples in cafes throughout the world and found U.S. couples scored among the lowest, touching only twice per hour. Puerto Rican couples in cafes touched an average of 180 times an hour.
However, perhaps Americans are just reaching out and touching someone other than the person they go to cafes with. The latest figures say 25 million Americans are making 60 million visits a year to bodywork practitioners (read massage therapists). (From March/April Utne Reader)
Find the balance: The guidelines offered by Seattle TV anchor Jean Enersen at the annual YWCA Benefit Breakfast in Spokane last month bear repeating. Hence, here are Enersen’s 10 tips for high-touch living in a high-tech world:
Care about something outside of yourself.
Bring a set of values to what you do.
Set goals for yourself and share them with the people around you.
Be part of a network of people who believe in some of the same things you do. And, be a mentor. Bring someone up with you.
Work hard. Given the choice between a genius or a hard worker, pick a hard worker.
Prioritize. Determine just how much work a task needs from you and get it done.
Ask a lot of questions.
Don’t worry about the things you can’t control. Expend energy on the things you can control.
Try to achieve balance in your life.
Trust yourself. Know what you want. Don’t focus on what you aren’t or on what you don’t have. Focus on what you have and on who you are.
It happens, deal with it: Boomers are aging and wrinkling at ever increasing numbers. But there are many indications they don’t plan to go gently into that old age. To wit: Sales of anti-aging products have risen steadily since 1993. Creams that promise wrinkle-free faces, for example, are expected to be a billion-dollar industry by 2002. (From March 30 Newsweek)
Thinking bottom line: We can’t let it pass unnoted that all of the trial studies of impotence drugs under way are male. This despite a recent study that shows more than a third of women ages 18 to 59 experience sexual dysfunction, compared with just 10 percent of men.
“Male sexuality has always been viewed as more important,” says Julie Heiman, a psychologist at the University of Washington and one of the nation’s leading experts on female sexual dysfunction.
“A man needs an erection to have intercourse, so it’s easy to regard a man’s sexuality as important and a woman’s as sort of an interesting pastime.”
FDA approval of the drugs for male use only is expected soon; and since there are strong indications the same drugs will help women, female trial studies are planned. Until those are completed, the FDA won’t approve the drugs for female use.
Let’s see a third of the adult women or a tenth of adult men. Where’s the better potential market share? And the pharmaceutical companies all chose to do the male studies first? Do the math, guys. (From April 6 Time)