20 March 2022 will mark Global Massage Makes Me Happy & Healthy Day (MMMHH Day), hosted by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) Massage Initiative.

The event is organised to celebrate and spread awareness of the positive impacts of touch therapies to both consumers and medical professionals. Launched in 2018, MMMHH day takes place on 20 March so it always coincides with The International Day of Happiness.

For 2022, the initiative is hosting an hour-long online event where an array of specialists will share wellness and massage trends and highlight the science behind why massage is beneficial for both mind and body.

Speakers will include:

• CG Funk, Massage Heights' senior VP culture and industry relations.• Jeppe Tengbjerg, founder and CEO of The International Massage Association.

• Jim Chenevey, CEO of Earthlite.• Karen Short, CEO of Universal Companies.

• Luke Massery, CEO of Scrip Companies.• Lynda Solien-Wolfe, chair of GWI Massage Initiative and president of Solwolfe Resource Group.

• Susie Ellis, founder, GWI and Global Wellness Summit.• Dr Tiffany Field, PhD, director/founder of the Touch Research Institute.

Research shows that massage supports physical and emotional wellbeing, and in a time when society's experiencing a growing endemic of touch hunger thanks to the pandemic, massage is a vital tool to help strengthen people’s mental and physical resilience.

A 2021 study by the Touch Research Institute on the effects of the COVID lockdown revealed that although 21 per cent of those surveyed lived alone, 68 per cent said they felt touch-deprived.

“After 40 years of research,” explains Dr Tiffany Field, founder and director of the University of Miami School of Medicine’s Touch Research Institute and medical spokesperson for the GWI Massage Makes Me Happy Initiative, “we have yet to find a chronic or systematic human malady that massage does not aid.”

Dr Field first entered the public conversation when she visited orphanages in Romania and found that the children’s stunted physical and emotional growth was directly related to a lack of touch.

Since then, her Touch Therapy Institute has completed over 100 studies on touch and massage, documenting benefits including:

• Enhancing growth and development of preterm infants.• Reducing depression, attentional disorders and pain syndromes.

• Increasing immune function in chronic illnesses.

“We also created a toolkit on our website with 50 ways to celebrate massage on 20 March,” adds Solien-Wolfe.

“We’re recommending things as simple as getting a massage, purchasing a massage gift card for someone else or even having a foot massage party with friends and family. It’s all about connecting and finding ways to make everyone feel happy and healthy!”

The GWI Initiative is also inviting businesses to arrange chair massages for their staff. Meanwhile, massage therapy schools are being encouraged to host open houses or conduct online classes to the local community for at-home massage tricks.

To take part in the official online Zoom event, please use the following information: Meeting ID: 882 1433 1601, Passcode: 076484