Being Lone-Ly
Loneliness is just a part of being human. Nobody is exempt. No matter how strong our faith is, or how much spiritual or personal growth we’ve been through, there are times when, inevitably, loneliness will fill our lives. The death of a loved one, the illness of a child, divorce, a break up, making tough decisions, in favor of an unpopular event, even doing what we know to be the right thing can also isolate us from others in a very painful- yet unavoidable way.
At times, we cannot find an exact trigger for these feelings – we somehow just feel disconnected from the flow things and those around us. We could be attempting to run away from the discomfort by going off to work, to a friends, or some activity. Even though this might provide a little temporary relief, it will usually increase our feelings of isolation. Like any emotion, any attempt to suppress or deny the loneliness will only give it more power. When we’re willing to face and accept what we’re feeling will often reduce the intensity of the experience.
No one really considers loneliness to be enjoyable, it encourages us to reach out to others, and to find support beyond what we are familiar with. To call a friend, go outside for the day and breathe the fresh air, or expressing our pain to someone can help us get it out of our system, out of our hearts and minds in a way that is therapeutic. Just Reading inspirational material can help us gain perspective. If we have been grieving over a major loss, we are able to find support groups that deal with these kinds of issue.
A lot of people lead busy lives that causes feelings of loneliness. It could be due to the isolation from themselves. The answer may be to spend some quality time with ourselves. We should schedule a time on a daily basis when we can focus on ourselves. We could be spending too much Time at work that we leave out quality time for our family, friends, and ourselves. We need to nurture our relationships by investing our time in them. The nature of all loneliness is not something new to humans. We thought of ourselves as unique and beyond the need for nurturing and investing in our lives in order to feel content. But, couldn’t honestly show others who we are, because we didn’t even know who we were ourselves.
The journey to and from loneliness is both filled with a paradox. We’ve learned that we are not perfect saints, nor are we perfect sinners. Just simply human. Granted, we are capable of doing wrong, but there is a basic goodness in each of us as well. And as we open up to accepting ourselves and others for who we are, we find the good quite frequently, more so than the wrongs. It is by sharing our vulnerabilities and weaknesses with others that we find peace, a mutual understanding and a sense of connectedness with others.
When we find where we belong in life, loneliness becomes a lesser part of.