{"id":17021,"date":"2020-10-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2020\/10\/18\/is-cow-hugging-the-world-s-new-wellness-trend\/"},"modified":"2020-10-18T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T12:00:00","slug":"is-cow-hugging-the-world-s-new-wellness-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2020\/10\/18\/is-cow-hugging-the-world-s-new-wellness-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Cow Hugging the World&#8217;s New Wellness Trend?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/travel\/story\/20201008-is-cow-hugging-the-worlds-new-wellness-trend?xtor=ES-213-[BBC Features Newsletter]-2020October16-[Travel| Button]\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/media.discovermine.com\/images\/view\/53d3741127f7ba0a3d00027a\/?r=0.6813129966596456\" style=\"max-width:100%;object-fit:scale-down;\" \/><br \/>THE NETHERLANDS, October 16, 2020 (BBC): From goat yoga to sound baths, the world is full of wellness trends designed to soothe and calm both body and spirit. Now, a self-care practice hailing from the Netherlands is promising practitioners serenity, and perhaps a smile or two. Dubbed &#8220;koe knuffelen&#8221; in Dutch (literally &#8220;cow hugging&#8221;), the practice is centered on the inherent healing properties of a good human-to-animal snuggle. Cow cuddlers typically start by taking a tour of the farm before resting against one of the cows for two to three hours. The cow&#8217;s warmer body temperature, slower heartbeat and mammoth size can make hugging them an incredibly soothing experience, and giving the animal a back rub, reclining against them or even getting licked is all part of the therapeutic encounter.<\/p>\n<p>Cow cuddling is believed to promote positivity and reduce stress by boosting oxytocin in humans, the hormone released in social bonding. The calming effects of curling up with a pet or emotional support animal, it seems, are accentuated when cuddling with larger mammals. This wholesome pastime emerged in rural Dutch provinces more than a decade ago, and is now part of a wider Dutch movement to bring people closer to nature and country life. Today, farms in Rotterdam, Switzerland and even the United States are offering cow-hugging sessions and promoting the activity&#8217;s joy-inducing, stress-busting properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source THE NETHERLANDS, October 16, 2020 (BBC): From goat yoga to sound baths, the world is full of wellness trends,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}