About Loneliness

From a POF 10.15.23

Hi Michael,
The Surgeon General of the U.S. has stated that there is an “epidemic of loneliness” in this country. It’s a strange phenomenon since it’s not really about being “alone.”

I feel like it is something that has either emerged or intensified in the last several years. I’m wondering what this is really about for me and for all of us collectively. And is there something we can “do” about it? (It’s hard to know what to do without really understanding its source.)

MEntity:

At the core of loneliness is usually a mix of factors that can range from mental health issues to mismatched social needs to self-esteem to an actual lack of contact to imaginary isolation, etc. But what we have seen among students and populations as loneliness has come to be an "epidemic," is a common factor of information glut.There is too much to process.

The world is small now with every horror made known and every wonder and amazement diminished.

This can leave even the most social of individuals feeling a sense of loneliness because the rate at which one must process emotions, thoughts, the future, the past, etc. surpass the capacity of most.

Imagine a plant that needs sunlight and water and nutritional soil, etc. Now imagine that there is no break from the sun and the rain continues for days and nutrition is washed away. We can see that the plant is being burned and oversaturated and lacking in vital resources, but for humans, this can be much less easy to notice or acknowledge.

We have spoken about the on-coming information glut that would wreak havoc upon populations. The primary means of countering this is with conscious effort to either reduce the amount of overloading input of information and discover the pace that is comfortable, or to increase the amount of access to the truth of goodness and kindness and beauty in the world.

One does not need to avoid reality or avoid information, but one does need to acknowledge where one has control and where one does not, and allow that to be the truth. For many, there is a sense that one cannot be close to another until everything is in order, stable, and has space to share. When there is a subconscious or conscious sense that "everything sucks," then the body and mind are perpetually on the peripherals of satisfying intimacy and closeness.

A simple "everything does NOT suck" can invite a new perspective and help the body and mind sense a state of welcome intimacy and closeness.

This is a much more complex issue than we can address in this format, but our response can be a quick start for anyone seeking to alter the dynamic of loneliness.