“ALL GREAT AND PRECIOUS THINGS ARE LONELY”

Being alone doesn’t always lead to feelings of loneliness, but being lonely always means feeling alone, yet they are two different ways of being. Henry Thoreau wrote “I love to be alone, I never found the companion that was as companionable as solitude” and indeed it is of great comfort to enjoy your own company.

Loneliness on the other hand can be crippling, it's the feeling of living slightly on the outside, always looking in. It has nothing to do with being alone; it is easy to be lonely in a crowd or even within the warmth of your family. It is about belonging, if you don’t feel a connection with the people around you,  that invisible thread that weaves you into each others lives, you can find yourself  not living your own life but acting as an appendage to someone else’s,  never quite belonging and feeling lonely.

We are all lonely for something missing in our lives, sometimes without ever knowing what it is. We blame ourselves for not being able to live alone and be happy, and the lonelier you are the harder it is to stop looking for a reason, to face the world again and join in.

 "You cannot stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to to come to you.You have to go to them sometimes" said Winnie the pooh.

Feeling lonely does not have to become a way of life, it is temporary state, so if there is no one else, start to self nurture, make a mental list of all the compliments you have received and the good things people have said about you. Tell yourself how loveable you are, what a good friend you would make, and how much you like being you.

Don’t put your life on hold waiting for someone to share it with, if you go out and do things anyway, you will soon find other like minded people doing it too, and you already have a connection.

Title quote by Steinbeck