Hug your way out of your troubles with Mata Amritanandamayi

While the Pope plans to participate in a televised and thus bound-to-be-ballyhooed Bible-reading marathon come October 5th, an Indian guru named Mata Amritanandamayi has reached out to her followers with a more hands-on approach.

Amritanandamayi, or Amma (Mother) to devotees, has been spreading her gospel of hugs since her teenage years in a India. On the first 2 days of her 3-day New York hugathon, she hugged 8,000 total strangers—some waiting up to 7 hours for the free embrace. After the undoubtedly awesome and experienced hug (estimates are she's at 27 million!), you even receive a Hershey’s kiss and a few flower petals. We think it's a beautiful idea: to nourish the soul through a touch wrapped in love.

Surrounded by a small army of like-minded volunteers, Amma offered her own serene, why-worry take: “If you ask a river, ‘How do you flow?’ it can only say, ‘I just flow.’ So likewise, I just flow.”