At A Touch of Gentleness, we believe that small acts of gentleness can create meaningful connection, bring comfort and help us feel less alone.
Our work is rooted in three simple but powerful practices: gentleness, positive touch and deep listening. Together, they create a space where people can feel seen, heard, valued and cared for.
Explore our three pillars below to discover more about what we do and why it matters.
Train to be a volunteer with us and learn more about the power of our 3 pillars:
Find Out More & Join Us'Wherever gentleness still lives so lives peace and hope and kindness'.
P Dugdale
Gentleness is an energy and to understand its transformative wisdom, power and subtleties it needs to be experienced. So for now we invite you to take a moment for yourself, sit back, relax and imbibe the essence of this story so kindly told by Ashley Ramsden, world renowned story teller.
WHO IS THE STRONGEST?
"In a gentle way you can shake the world"
– Mahatma Gandhi
Gentleness is power with purpose. It is what allows strong people to build up rather than tear down.
And so it is that we at A Touch of Gentleness seek to become ambassadors of gentleness. Through creating our own individual gentleness practices we experience gentleness towards ourselves first. Thus the healing and our 'work' begins from the inside out. Then as we become beacons of gentleness rippling out across the globe the joyful, infectious, flow of gentleness will permeate and touch the lives of others.
"Gentleness requires full presence, has integrity and an intention of care.
'It is a portal to love and love detangles everything."
- H Prosper
I remember falling from a breakwater
so high
I remember calling out thought I was going to die
you heard me long before I fell
into my own sweet pain
you gently held me to your heart so I could rise again
you gently opened up my heart to love
the truth of me
through your
exquisite gentleness
we set a caged bird free
by Jenny Lynne Sessions aka Jen-ix
www.becomeyourownmedicine.co.ukAs a way to further practice bringing ’gentleness’ into your life we invite you to take a look at the below:
“It is hard to touch the heart without being willing to touch the person.”
– Curtis Tyrone Jones
For thousands of years healers have somewhat mystically used touch to heal. Now through extensive research, the amazing physical and emotional benefits of positive touch and massage are becoming better understood. Equally exciting is the fact that we do not have to be ‘trained healers' or 'massage therapists’ for our touch to be beneficial.
Gentle touch with pure intention is in itself healing. It also provides a powerful form of communication and connection. Safety is found in connection.
Simply holding another person’s hand, touching their shoulder, giving a hug or a simple hand massage when done with positive intention promotes emotional and physical wellness.
Touch is our first sense to develop and, I believe, may well be our last to leave us.
It is also the one sense we can't live without.
Benefits of touch include boosting our immune system and increasing our Oxytocin production.
Oxytocin, known as the 'calm, kind, connect' hormone, helps us feel calm, loving and connected to other people. More recently it has also been coined as the 'moral molecule' by economist Paul Zac, and the 'cardioprotective' hormone because it is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and stimulates the production of Nitric Oxide.
Nitric Oxide's myriad of cardiovascular benefits include keeping arteries smooth, clear and elastic, thus protecting them from becoming hard, calcified, clogged and brittle. It is also essential in the regeneration of heart cells. So as we 'touch' someone's heart emotionally we also positively affect it physically. What an amazing feedback loop!
“Touch has a memory.”
– John Keats
To fully understand the depth of emotional and physical benefits that touch provides, we really recommend watching this stunning documentary .
Luckily if we live on our own it is still possible to reap some of the benefits of touch for ourselves through self massage, havening, stroking a pet, and of course through our community ‘A Touch of Gentleness’.
If you would like to enjoy learning how to give yourself a soothing hand massage, watch our tutorial here .
In the below video Louise Mckay, one of the world leaders in 'havening', kindly explains more about the amazing benefits of havening touch and how we can give it to ourselves. For more information about Havening and Louise, please take a look at her website: www.havenit.co.uk .
“People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou
'The art of conversation lies in Listening'
Malcom Forbes
Listening is in itself such a simple act. We don’t have to advise, or coach or sound wise (what a relief). We just have to be willing to simply sit there and truly listen. However to do it well is a great art and skill. It requires us to be fully present, to drop the mental chatter of our minds. Indeed, as Rumi said:
"The quieter you become the more you are able to hear."
Being a good listener has been shown to; improve empathy, build mutual trust, demonstrate respect and diffuse conflict. It is impossible to create a healthy, cohesive culture if we are unable to listen.
As listeners we need to create a space inside ourselves, we need to let go of our own beliefs and opinions and instead sit with gentle wonder, curiosity and an open heart. In doing so we learn what it is to be someone else, to walk in another person’s shoes. Thus, listening helps us to move closer. As we listen so we understand and as we understand so fear and judgement dissolves.
And then, in this beautiful place that Rumi referred to as ‘the field beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing’ we can finally sit together and reweave the world once more into wholeness.
At A Touch of Gentleness we often get wonderful feedback on how we listen.
One gentleman said to a volunteer that he really liked how she listened because she, "listened with full presence and no judgement and that is a very rare thing these days".
And another commented on how he and the volunteer had "just met in that place where there are no words".
If you want to practice improving your listening skills start by setting the intention to listen and then ask a friend a question. It can be as simple as "tell me what’s going on for you in life right now?" and then:
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NB. A Touch of Gentleness does not visit individual homes and always works in visiblity of others.
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