The 5-Second Hug

I was saying goodbye to an old friend last week, and as I went in for a hug, he stopped me. "You're doing it wrong," he said, gently turning me to the other side. "When you hug, do it with intention. Heart to heart."

As someone who believes in energy and vibrations, this immediately got the gears in my brain turning. We all know that a long hug releases "feel-good hormones," but this was different. This was about intimacy, energy exchange, and connection. It was about being intentional.

For a long time, I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants, just trying to make it through each day. I lived and died by a schedule, but it was more about survival than living. I felt like I was going through the motions, carline, work, dinner, homework …rinse and repeat.  I was a mere passenger in my own life.

My mindset began to shift a few years ago when a friend with whom I practiced yoga with told me she follows the moon cycles, writing down her intentions on every new moon, letting go of what no longer serves her on the full moon. She said it helped her slow down and get real about her goals. I started doing the same, and the result was powerful.  I was no longer just going through the motions—I was making conscious choices, setting intentions, and creating achievable goals that finally steered my life in the direction I chose for myself.

Of course, I make no claims that I'm this Zen person who has it all together. It's actually quite the opposite. Most of the time, my mind is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and I feel completely off kilter. Things do not always work out the way I had intended, and that’s okay. This is when I try to recenter myself. I stop, I breathe, and I choose to focus on a smaller, intentional goal. It could be as simple as making my bed, going for a walk, or finally tackling the act of putting away my laundry (a feat that never seems to happen).

It's about learning patience and accepting that not everything will work out exactly as you'd hoped, which is perfectly acceptable. When one door closes, you can choose to walk through the next one with purpose. Life is a path, and it's up to us to walk it with intention. It starts with the small things.

Like a hug.  Heart to heart. It’s an intimate act of choosing connection, of choosing to be present. It's not about surviving the day. It's about living it with purpose.