Hold the hug a second longer than feels normal. You’ll never regret that second.

Most physical affection gets cut short by embarrassment rather than by preference. There is a standard length, everybody obeys it, and the release happens right at the point where it starts to mean something. That extra second is where the difference between a greeting and an actual hug lives.

Try being the one who lets go second this week. Not dramatically and not with everyone, just with the people you would be sorry to have been brisk with. It is a tiny adjustment, and it is one of the very few things nobody looks back on and wishes they had done less of.