Cow Cuddling Is The New Lifestyle Trend Taking The World By Storm

The past few years have seen a bovine intervention of sorts, with India’s obsession with the holy cow being exhibited without much inhibition. Whether it is believing that the assumed creature can cure cancer with its urine or that its milk has a yellowish-gold tint because it contains gold particles, India’s fascination with the bovine has been nothing short of bizarre. But we don’t wish to run along with the narrative of the cow’s holiness, we’re here to talk about a new lifestyle trend that is taking over the wellness world. Talking about bizarre, did you know that smelling an orange or inflating a balloon can actually help you calm down? With goat yoga and its likes taking over the world, maybe the bovine experience is just what the doctor’s ordered next!

‘Koe Knuffelen,’ translated from Dutch to mean ‘cow hugging’ has been a therapeutic self-care practice of the Netherlands for over a decade. The wholesome activity of hugging the large mammal focuses on the inherent healing properties of a human to animal connection and touch. Said to promote a sense of serenity in its practitioners, it is believed to reduce stress and promote positivity by boosting the production of oxytocin in humans which is the hormone that is released to form social bonding. The process is similar to when one cuddles with their dogs and other pets or even their emotional support animals, but it seems that cuddling with larger animals can accentuate that experience.

The BBC first reported of this experience that was taking over the rural Dutch provinces in 2020. They noted, “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’s warmer body temperature, slower heartbeat and mammoth size can make hugging them an incredibly soothing experience, and giving the animal a backrub, reclining against them or even getting licked is all part of the therapeutic encounter.

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’s joy-inducing, stress-busting properties.”

Closer home, Indians too have been indulging in the practice. With India Today reporting, “on a popular Facebook conversation series, Gyan Ganga, sitar player and composer Pandit Shubhendra Rao, member of parliament Maneka Gandhi and Ashwini Guruji of Dhyan Ashram spoke about this practice and how if you hug a desi cow breed, it can lead to the cleansing of the body as a whole.”

Stressful lives have caught us all in a spiral and many are hitting their nearest gaushalas for a free therapeutic session with cows. While I’m not as sure about whether I would signup for the bovine therapy, in a touch-starved world and one where therapy is quite expensive, maybe cow-cuddling (as strange as it might seem) will be the new bovine, err... divine touch we run to hoping it doesn’t kick us back! Our only hope is that it’s not time’s up for little cuddly therapy dogs.

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