We’ve explored lots of experiments on the subject of random acts of kindness, and I had an experience the other day that brought to mind the power of acts of affection.  I was walking across Central Park one morning, as usual, when I saw a couple of friends I occasionally run into on the way to work.  Lately, whenever we meet, we take a moment to enjoy a bear hug.  This manner of greeting emerged after we’d gone quite a while without seeing one another, and the hugging we began spontaneously that day has become our way of saying hello.  After the most recent encounter, I found myself feeling that warm glow I have whenever I share affection with someone, and how moments of mutual and reciprocal affection can offer a source of delicious mind-body nourishment.

I also got to thinking about other, smaller moments of affection I share with people in any given day.  There’s the woman who crosses the park at the same time I do each morning and, lately, when we pass by each other and say “good morning”, she reaches out to touch my arm as she goes by.  And, there’s the man who gives me a quick kiss on the cheek whenever we encounter one another on the way to work.   There’s the doorman at my office building who hails me a cab each evening.  Whenever we have time to chat, I find myself touching his arm.  It’s a small way I share my appreciation with him, and is a small expression of the affection I feel for him. There are also the many people who offer the gift of a smile throughout the course of a day, which is yet another way to express affection.

And, as strange as it may seem, I also experience my affection for the trees I encounter each morning as I walk through the park.  Stopping to touch a tree and say good morning to it may seem like an odd thing to do, but it fills me with a moment of sharing affection that adds to the quality of my day.  It doesn’t matter that the tree can’t respond in a way I can recognize.  It’s my offering a moment of appreciation and recognition of how trees enhance the quality of my life that enriches my experience.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to notice moments when you share affection with others, and when you receive affection from others.  These can be small moments no one else would notice, but that you know convey the energy or essence of affection from you to someone or something else, or they may be quite obvious and tangible moments of shared affection. 

And, this experiment is also an opportunity to explore your relationship with affection, noticing when you don’t like it or don’t want to share it and when you do.  There are times people want to be affectionate with us when we’re not interested, or times when we want to share affection with others and they don’t’ want it.  It’s important to be aware of these experiences, as they represent opportunities to acknowledge and honor our boundaries and the boundaries of others.  If you encounter someone who doesn’t want an outward display of affection from you, you can always send them a kind or loving thought, which doesn’t invade their boundary but allows you to acknowledge within yourself how you feel about them.

As with all the experiments, play with this one.  There aren’t any right answers here – there’s just the next opportunity to live consciously and discover how you move through your world.