The Hugging Army

Book excerpt: Its amazing how many valuable lessons you can learn hugging strangers. Just ask Vanessa L. White Fernandes. She never planned to be sort of obsessed with hugging complete strangers, but shes gone places, met people, and learned things she never thought possible since she started doing it. It all began in the summer of 2013, when she and her future wife, Brenda, went to New York City to see Amma, the Hugging Saint who has hugged hundreds of thousands of people. The experience transformed her, and in June 2015, she wrote on a large board: I trust you, do you trust me? How about a hug? and stood on a sidewalk with a blindfold over her eyes. She was curious about what would happen even though she knew what she was doing was potentially dangerous. After all, she was exposing the most vulnerable part of her bodyher heartbut she knew it would be OK. With that first step The Hugging Army was bornand in sharing her stories of her hugging experiences, including her 2017 Hug Bug Tour of the southeastern United States, the author emphasizes how hugging strangers has dramatically changed her life for the better.