Hugs Heal Myspace Code - About Me

My name is Regina and I'm the creator of Hugs Heal. This is me!

How Hugs Heal got started:

I've always believed hugs are a very important part of every person's life; whether they get give or receive them; but that thought was always kind of abstract. I didn't have anything specific to attribute it to. Then in October 2007 I was reading an article about a study that was done showing that hugs can actually reduce the risk of heart disease. I remember thinking “Wow, hugs really do heal.” It made me think of all the times in my life that I've been made to feel better by being hugged; and all times I've hugged friends and family members when I thought they needed it. I realized that hugs have a far more profound effect on our lives than most people really appreciate.

So, I came up with the "Hugs Heal" idea.

Hugs Heal started out as a simple Myspace account. I sent out some friends requests, half expecting to get some messages back telling me how corny my idea was. I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of messages berating me for my silly idea, I started receiving emails from people telling me how wonderful thought it was, asking how they could help me spread my message. The Hugs Heal Myspace grew from there and is still growing. It now has thousands of friends connected to it, many of whom contribute stories, pictures, and videos that depict how hugs heal.

The Hugs Heal Online Community is a social network I started in the hopes of bringing people together through hugs and love. It is a place for everyone who believes that hugs have real healing power and who have been helped by love and hugs to survive life's challenges.

I also hope to start an in-person club and organize activities like visits to hospitals, passing out sandwiches to the homeless, and protesting Hug Bans in schools. These are just some of the many plans I have for Hugs Heal.

I am only one person running the Hugs Heal Myspace and the Hugs Heal Shop. I need your help to make Hugs Heal grow, expand and touch more people.

The Hugs Heal Shop Has Re-Opened!

Great news! I told all of you that Hugs Heal Shop was being redone, and it is now finished! Visit and you will find over 400 different products with a range of more than 20 different positivity-inspiring designs on them. Many of the old designs have been updated to printed in various colors of your choice and on many different products.

Some of the items that are now available for purchase in the shop include:

• adult size t-shirts (including plus size)
• kids t-shirts
• side tie tees
• hoodies
• sweaters
• sweatshirts
• tank tops
• bathrobes
• aprons
• sweatpants
• shorts
• baby onesies
• button pins
• tote bags
• iPad sleeves
• netbook sleeves
• laptop sleeves
• umbrellas
• pillows
• duffel bags
• doggie t-shirts
• bandannas
• and more!

Please note that not every product has been prepared with multiple color versions of each design. If you see a product with a design on it that you want in a different color, just let me know and I'll do my best to whip one up for you!

A Big Update on Pretty Much Everything

Hi everybody! So sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been very busy with a ton of different projects. First of all, in case you haven't visited in awhile, the Hugs Heal Myspace has been completely re-designed! It now has a sleeker, easier-to-navigate layout for everyone to enjoy.

Now, I have moved on to redoing the entire Hugs Heal Shop. Soon, we will have HUNDREDS of new products with updated designs in a rainbow of colors that you will be able to edit yourself! I am very excited about these changes, and I hope that you will be too!

After the Shop is finished, I plan to open a Hugs Heal Facebook Group! I hope that this expansion with spread the Hugs Heal Message further and further, and that it will help me to promote the Hugs Heal Shop.

To update everyone on my current non-Hugs Heal project, I am working on a new website where I will be displaying various pieces of my paintings. Once the website is up and running, I am hoping to begin working at a local street faire to showcase and sell my work (unbelievably excited AND nervous about this!) I also plan to take custom orders for people who have items that they would like me to paint. I promise that when I've finished setting up the website, I'll share it with you guys here at Hugs Heal. The artwork showcased on the new site will be entirely different than anything I've ever done before.

On April 16, I will be participating in my first-ever SketchCrawl, which is an event that involves a whole bunch of people getting together, walking around, and drawing everything they see. This particular event will be doubling as a fundraiser for disaster relief efforts in Japan. For more information, please read the article on my other website, Gini's Magic.

Support a Great Cause and Get Your Creative Juices Flowing By Participating in a SketchCrawl!

****IMPORTANT NOTE****

After the Hugs Heal Shop renovations are completed, I will be looking for volunteers to help with spreading the Hugs Heal message. I will need people to send out friend requests on both Myspace and Facebook, and post bulletins and messages (I will write everything myself, I just need help posting it).

If you are interested in helping out with any of this, even you can only do a little bit, PLEASE CONTACT ME! Every bit of help, helps.

Hug it Out!

Erica and Cody, age 3
Thanks to Debbie for sharing this adorable photo at the Hugs Heal Online Community!

A Fellow Hugger Shares "Free Hugs" Experience

The experience and photos below were shared by Angel, a friend of Hugs Heal. The words in Purple are hers, the words in Black are mine.

"Our first Free Hugs that we participated in we did on 7-7-07. It was significant as people from all over the world were doing it at the same time with the same purpose. Peace, Love & Happiness. We were surrounded by Angels that day and we could all feel them. We got quite the surprise when we got our group pictures - one of the Angel's decided to join in them. In both group pictures if you look at the purple hue you will see its face. First one is looking straight at the camera, the second one its turned facing us. What difference does giving a hug make? Well if we have gotten the attention of Angels then I would say it means a lot!! Love & Hugs, Angel"

While I try to keep Hugs Heal non-religious to make sure everyone of every religion feel welcome, I felt that this experience was too cool not to share. What do you guys think? Can you see the angels' face in the purple hue?

A Hug That Touched the Soul

"When my mother died at home from terminal cancer, all the people started coming in to pay their respects, plenty of hugging, but the only one that I felt down to my soul was the one from my favorite uncle, he got out of his car, didn't say a word, just opened his arms, and I fell into them sobbing, he never said anything, he knew how close I was to my mom, he just held me as hard as he could, and let me cry. Made me feel better and safe."

Shared by Akiko

The Three Acts of Kindess Challenge

Repost:
Hello, my wonderful friends! Today I am issuing you a new challenge. It will cost you nothing but your time (unless you choose otherwise) and I guarantee it will make you feel wonderful.

The day after you read this blog entry, I challenge you to do 3 kind things for someone other than yourself. I can be 3 acts of kindness for one person or one act for 3 different people.

These acts can be anything you choose. As long as you don't stay in bed all day, I guarantee you that plenty of opportunities will arise. You just need to pay attention.

Here are some ideas:
1. Give a gift card to a homeless person (or anyone who needs it)
2. Give a hug to someone who looks sad
3. Help someone carry their groceries out to their car
4. Take a friend out to their favorite restaurant
5. Tip your babysitter or pizza delivery person twice as much as you normally would
6. Take your spouse to the local park and have some ice cream together (or hot chocolate, depending on the weather)

Don't forget to come back here and tell me what you decided to do for your three acts of kindness, or post some of your ideas for other people to do. I'll choose some of my favorites to be featured in my blog!

The Color of a Hug

I sent out a request for photos depicting important hugs. What could be more important, not to mention wonderful, than this one?

A Hug That Saved a Life

A huge thank-you hug to MaryLee of San Jose, California for sharing this amazing experience.

This is a time I found out for real a hug can make all the difference! It was many years ago, over 22 about, my family worked in the restaurant business and I became a bartender. I thought to make drinks for clients, but I was always giving them rides home or giving them some inspirational message, like typing up the poem Footprints for them. People who spend a lot time in bars are really very sad.

I was working nights, 6pm- 2am, and one night a man came in and he was very quiet. I tried to chat with him but he said little. I was taught to get customers to meet new people, but he was having none of that. I asked him his name, he said, "It doesn’t matter." The beer he was drinking was 80 cents, he was getting 2 dimes back each time. I could see he was making something with his dimes.

Well, as the night came to a close I went around the other side of the bar to clean up the tables and get ready to close. I put the ashtrays on the bar next to him; he stood to leave and feeling his heavy heart I said, "May I give you a hug?", and said, "This shall pass. Give it a few days." He left and when I went back to the bar to clean his spot I saw that he had made a question mark with his dimes. The week-end passed and I went back to work. Monday night when I went out to the car to go home there was a white rose on my car. I asked everyone and no one knew a thing. This happened for 4 nights in a row then on Friday that man I hugged came in the door with a white rose at closing time. I said, "It was you!"

He told me that night he was going to kill himself and because I tried so hard to talk to him and then asked to hug him and said this will pass in a few days, it reminded him of the bible verse he knew from his childhood. But he said it was the hug, someone caring about him and hugging him that made him change his mind. We cried together. I never saw him again, but from time to time I got a white rose and I send a little prayer to him still after all these years.

Would You Hug 30,000 People per Day?

Please take a look at this article about an incredible woman, humanitarian, and spiritual leader who's hugs, some say, can create miracles. Everywhere she goes people flock to her, waiting in lines for as long as six hours just to hug her. This wonderful woman, affectionately called the "Hugging Saint", often sits for up to 20 hours at a time without a break, hugging up to 30,000 people per day.

She is said to have hugged more 26 million people of all races, religions, and walks of life all around the world.

Click Here to read the full article: "When a Motherly Hug is the Best Medicine"

These Cuties are Either Hugging or Dancing!

A Hug From a Lion Is The Most Sincere She's Ever Recieved

Don't be afraid to watch this video- the lion is definitely not going to attack. The woman in this video receives an affection embrace from the Jupiter the lion. An hugs that she states is the most sincere she's every received.

The Best Moments - A Mother's Happiness

"After my son learned to walk rather well (around 10 mos. old), I used to walk with him, but I'd be on my knees so that he felt more secure. One day we were walking together in the house and I remember him coming up to me and throwing his arms around my neck and telling me "Love You!" I hugged his little body back and felt sooo happy to be a mommy. The love, reassurance, innocence, and bondmanship of that hug are so vivid to me today. Now when we hug...he always hugs my neck!"

Shared by Marie of Coleman, TX

Brotherly Love

Shared by another friend of Hugs Heal. I think this one would be great for birthday cards for any mom. Don't you?

A Long-Distance Hug Made Closer

This is a photo of my husband, Mickey, and me (Lisanne) this holiday season.

We live over 400 hundred miles apart due to the fact that both of our mothers are ill and I have a brother suffering from cancer that I'm caring for... Thus we do NOT get to see each other often.

Our shared hugs do indeed help to heal my heart, my soul, and my mind.

Shared by Lisanne of South Carolina

A Father/Daughter Hug

A beautiful Black & White of Sean Kelly Dolan and his daughter Riley Ann.

Shared by Sean K. Dolan

A Bear Hug For a Dog

Introducing the adorable Elena and her dog, Rosie!

Shared by Earl from Colorado Springs, CO.
A hug is a great tool for training a dog.

9-Year-Old Katelyn Sassin - Kicking Cancer to the Curb

I was recently contacted by a woman named Marie Sassin, who is the mother of a very strong young lady named Katelyn. Katelyn is 9 years old and is currently battling Leukemia. Marie asked me if I could donate any Hugs Heal merchandise to Katelyn's American Cancer Society Relay For Life Team, and I offered to design some Hugs Heal pins for her team and send them to her. I wish I could afford to do more, and I'm hoping that you, my readers, will be able to.

This is what Marie Sassin has to say about her daughter.

"Katelyn Sassin is a caring, sweet loving little girl, she is the best big sister to her little brother and little sister and a good friend and companion to her older sister. Almost a year ago Katelyn was experiencing some pain in her ankles, her daddy and I thought it was from running in gym class. Then the pain starting coming more frequently and with much more severity, moving from her ankles to her knees and elbows. Sometimes our Katie-bug would cry so much and be in so much pain she could not sleep. I would have to help her get dressed and help her to the bathroom. We have been from one doctor to the next (and many ER visits) with no answers. They would tell us it was pulled muscles, or tendons and even once we heard she was making a big deal out of nothing and it was all in her head.
A new pediatrician came along; a caring one who took time to listen and care, took the time to get to the bottom of things. Some blood tests had shown she was anemic, she was hardly eating anything by then and only weighed 60 pounds. Her new pediatrician as well as her daddy and I thought she had some sort or rheumatic disease.

We were then referred to Children's Hospital of Birmingham two hours away. Before you can see a Rheumatic Doctor they like for you to have a bone marrow test because some of the medicines for rheumatic diseases can alter marrow, and if you did have cancer it would not show on a biopsy, so it was by chance that day, September 11th 2008 they ordered a bone marrow aspiration done.

We were told Katelyn has biphenotypic leukemia, which means she has both AML and ALL cell markers, but since the ALL presented the most they will treat her as ALL.

In October Katelyn moved from standard risk cancer patient to standard high risk which means her chemotherapy is more intense and will last longer. She is very very sick and throws up on a daily basis, the medicines have given her ulcers in her mouth and she is very tired.

Over the past five months Katelyn has received nine spinal taps, five bone marrow biopsies, three blood transfusions, a platelet transfusion, one surgery, she has been hospitalized for two weeks with an infection and stopped eating, and she had to be fed through a TPN line. She can not go to school because she may catch an infection so she is homebound taught, but all in all she is a fighter, she will not complain and has kept a sense of humor.

We have good news from her last biopsy that she has remission marrow, the hard chemotherapy will last six more months and then she moves into the final phase which will last one and a half years to make sure the cancer does not come back."

Katelyn Sassin is clearly a brave little warrior, and I really wish I could meet her in person. I'll be keeping her in my thoughts while she and her family are going through all of these difficulties, and when she has beaten this sickness, I know they'll all be stronger for it.

Team Katelyn will be participating in the May 15-16 2009 Relay For Life at the North Alabama State Fairgrounds. Don't forget to visit Katelyn's American Society Relay For Life Team Page and help her team reach their goal by making a donation. Let's hear it for Healthy Living!

Dear Mr. President - An Open Letter to President-Elect Obama

Pepsi has opened a website where anyone can contribute their support, ideas, or opinions into a completely open video letter to the United States President-To-Be, Barack Obama. Make a video and submit it to RefreshEverything.com share your feelings with Mr. Obama and the rest of the world - YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

The Eldorado Elf Gives to LA's Homeless

After my brother was watching the news yesterday, he told me about the man they'd mentioned, called "Cadillac Santa" who had been giving cash to the homeless in Los Angeles, CA. When I researched him on the net I found that after the Cadillac Santa had passed away in 1992, his tradition of handing out money to the homeless was and still is being carried on by a man known as the Eldorado Elf.

Read more here.

Don't forget to give to other people all throughout the year, not just during the holidays! Kindness never goes out of style.