The world is experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. Google it—it’s everywhere. The United Kingdom has decided to hire a “Minister of Loneliness.” They have sufficient research to show that loneliness has major detrimental impacts on lifespan. And I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’d agree—loneliness sucks.
How did we get so lonely? And what are we going to do about it?
It would seem that in a world with instant everything, it would be impossible to feel so alone. But as we know—you can be standing in a crowd and feel alone and lonely. You can be online with social media everyday—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc., and feel so disconnected from the chatter going on all around you even though you spend hours doing it.
In and amongst all this noise is the silence of loneliness. That deep inner feeling that the world is spinning around you at warp speed but you are all alone and isolated despite people being everywhere.
Loneliness can be address through Wholeness. Here’s why. When you’re using Wholeness (Life Puzzle) as a framework for building your life, when the ache of loneliness spreads over you, the Life Puzzle is your lifeline. Wholeness redirects your focus onto action of putting your Life Puzzle together. As you do this, it undoes the lethargy of loneliness that keeps you stuck.
Yes, you recognize the feeling of loneliness. That inner voice that says, “no one cares, I’m all alone” and as that begins to come out of you, you say ‘Stop’. And then you shift and say, “What piece of my Life Puzzle can I work on right now to address these feelings of loneliness?”
The most obvious one might be the “Community” piece. What can you do to build your community piece and in the process, remove loneliness? It might be finding a group to volunteer with or creating a group to focus on an issue that’s important to you. Since this is your Life Puzzle—building the community piece is your responsibility and if you’re sitting deeply in loneliness, it’s letting you know—time to work on your Community piece.
Less obvious may be something like your “Nutrition” piece. Has your diet has gotten overloaded with sugar and junk food? We know that sugar/junk food can lead to mood swings. Perhaps building in your nutrition piece by cleaning up your diet, returning to simple, basic foods and lots of fresh water would clear up your mind and enable you to think more clearly.
The intent here is to shift focus from loneliness towards your wholeness. Find an area of your wholeness (Life Puzzle) that needs you to actively engage your focus instead. As you do this, it will enable you to connect to others. Some of these people may help you—say you choose to go to a therapist. Some of these people you may find your SELF helping. Either way, you are addressing loneliness and building wholeness. You win. The world wins.
And one final comment—in a world consumed with loneliness, can you be an Ambassador for Wholeness? As you work on your own wholeness, realize that very few people are aware of the possibilities of wholeness. Reach out and teach just one other person about this. Little by little we could transform a global epidemic of loneliness into a global burst of wholeness. Give it a try!