Fighting Loneliness - III

Fighting Loneliness - part III - Loneliness in a time of isolation

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/working-from-home-alone-combating-loneliness-isolation.html

For the past two days, I’ve looked at fighting loneliness (which is quite different from being alone).  The article suggests that loneliness is just as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Lonely people are 50 percent more likely to die prematurely than those with healthy social relationships.

The ten points are:

-1 Realize that loneliness is a feeling, not a fact. 

-2 Reach out

-3 Notice your deflating thoughts

-4 Make a plant to FIGHT the mental and emotional habits of loneliness!!!

-5 Focus on the needs of others.  

-6 Find others like you

-7 Always show up when meeting with others

-8 Be curious

-9 Kindness goes a long way

-10 Be persistent (even when a group seems to be a dead-end)

BUT

Some of those suggestions are “dead in the water” during a time of isolation!!!  For example, the list suggests going to meetings (maybe even community meetings, special interest groups, people with like ideas) - BUT - those ideas just don’t work in a pandemic!!! 
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So, today I’m piecing together some ideas from other sources when isolated!!

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-1 Go for a walk - alone or with somebody.

I have been walking a lot!!!  Last week I did over 49 miles in seven days - or about seven miles a day!!!  It was about half-and-half with walking with friends and walking alone.  My friend AP and I like walking at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock TX - we can be in the shade (Texas is warming up into the upper 80s / lower 90s).  PLUS-PLUS-PLUS - this park has open restrooms!!!!  (Aside, two times when I have been walking with friends they have sensed “the call of nature” and with closed restrooms, they had to find a spot off the trail!!!)

I have used the “Nextdoor Neighbor” application and have posted “Walking on the San Gabriel Trail” at 10:00 in the past and generally, get some people to walk with - some of which have become friends!!

I also invited my bridge group to meet and walk together.  Yes, we only have five people join us - but we had a great time, interacting and getting a nice walk.

-2 Call your family and friends.

Do you know that they are probably just like you - sitting alone - watching too much television?  And hearing the voice and interacting with friends is better than talking to the television!!!  The calls don’t have to be long (although a call to my sister ended up being about an hour!!!)

-3 Don’t use Facebook to replace REAL CONVERSATIONS!!

The article said this - (not me): “There's ample evidence that high use of Facebook correlates with unhappiness.”  I spend maybe half-an-hour a day on Facebook - liking some of the posts and saying “Happy Birthday”.  Likewise, with my Twitter account.  (I do search for posts from my son and video clips that he posts as a news reporter.)

-4 Make Video chat dates.

Arrange to talk with your family at specific times.  My friend RG has a daughter (and family) in California and they video chat once a day generally.  Part of their experience is that the RG’s granddaughters are 4 and 1.5 years-old and they love to talk with Nana!!!

I’ve also been on weekly Zoom groups (my Bible Study group is meeting online and because we already are close friends, the discussion and sharing have flowed easily!!!

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The realization is that we ALL are in isolation and quarantine - we all are on the verge of loneliness.  Reach out and touch someone!!!  (Or sit alone in the darkness watching another Netflix movie!!!)

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More suggestions tomorrow!!!

Hugs - reach out and fight against the isolation!!!  Life is what you make it - and you get to choose who you are and where you are going!!!

Karen