Being alone and being lonely are not the same thing.
We know this because people react differently to being alone.
You yourself have probably reacted differently in different times of being alone.
One of the things that may seem challenging about our current predicament is that our being alone is being enforced upon us by an outside authority.
But actually,
If we really think about what's going on right now compassionately,
Then we would choose to isolate ourselves.
This is a matter of saving lives,
And our experience of being alone can be entirely different,
Dependent upon whether we interpret it as a limitation on our freedom,
Or instead as a compassionate choice.
Nonetheless,
When feelings of loneliness arise,
We can treat them just the same as any other feelings that we don't like,
As something separate to us that can be worked with directly in the mind.
We see loneliness arise and we say,
I see you loneliness,
And you're not me.
If you were me,
Then I would be different,
Or I would entirely cease to be,
When loneliness is not present.
I have been around whether loneliness has been around or not.
Therefore,
Loneliness is not me,
No matter how real it feels right now.
And in a sense it is real,
But it's just an appearance.
It's just a thing,
And things change.
Now,
We're trained to believe that we can't do anything about these kinds of things.
But we can.
In the East,
People think very differently about this,
Typically.
Certainly if they've been involved in any kind of mindfulness practice,
Which of course has been around in the East far longer than it's been around in the West,
But hey,
It's 2020 and we have the internet now.
So we've been able to take the very best of these practices and learn how to apply them in practical ways,
Absent of the cultural baggage.
That's what we're doing here when we decide,
I see you loneliness,
And I'm going to do something else.
Now that something else doesn't have to be some kind of hardcore spiritual practice.
It could be video calling someone.
There's a good antidote for loneliness.
Put on your favorite podcast.
Now,
We might think,
Okay,
But these things are a distraction.
They're probably somewhat of a distraction from that feeling of loneliness.
If we work with that feeling of loneliness directly,
That's how we're going to develop skills for dealing with it.
But we don't have to do this exclusively.
We can just go ahead and call mum.
Or call a brother or a sister or a friend.
Call someone you haven't spoken to in ages.
We're probably all going to be very keen to hear from one another in a time like this.
And when we share ourselves with others,
The feeling of warmth is something we've all experienced.
And this is a unique opportunity to do that.
We all have the kind of time on our hands that we often wish we had when it came to the matter of catching up with friends.
So let's do it.
Let's catch up with all of those friends that we usually don't have time for.
And I tell you,
The amount of smiles that I've seen in friends and family,
Even in this time of crisis,
Is astounding.
Something that's important to remember,
Even amongst all of this,
Is that most of us will not catch the coronavirus.
Most of us are just having a holiday.
Now there may be certain financial or economical concerns for us alongside this.
And those are totally valid.
But there's nothing that we can do about those right now.
There's absolutely nothing that we can do about them.
We need to inform ourselves.
We need to take the support that we can get.
And then enjoy our holiday.
Now tomorrow there might be new information.
We want to educate ourselves on that.
And then enjoy our holiday.
And the degree to which we're able to enjoy this time off is the degree to which we're going to be able to bring smiles to other people's faces when we call them up and we make that effort to catch up.
I hope this is useful for dealing with the issue of loneliness.
We may be alone,
But we don't have to be lonely.
I'm available to chat in friendship,
Either about the practices that I'm sharing here or about anything else.
I'm going to have some time on my hands.
I imagine most of you are too.
So let's talk.
