Close your eyes and if you are able,
Place one hand on your heart and another on your abdomen.
Take three deep breaths.
Notice your chest rising and falling,
Your belly expanding and contracting.
The body is not a lonely place,
But the mind can be.
The mind weaves endless tales about our worthiness,
Isolation and lack.
The body is a universe unto itself.
The heart,
A pulsing friend.
The breath,
A steadfast lover.
The core,
A soulful home.
Sometimes,
Loneliness can feel like a deserted island.
An island where we are stuck and under-resourced.
Loneliness aches,
A global ache that spreads to all the dark places.
Loneliness is a lamplight.
One that shines its amber glow on the parts of us that are hungry and longing.
To experience loneliness is to sit in the growing pains of love.
When there is more capacity for loving,
There is also more capacity for longing.
Our desire to connect is rooted in wholeness.
Our yearning to be witnessed is nestled in openness.
The mind wants to make meaning of loneliness.
It wishes to find a reason,
A solution,
A cure.
And yet,
Only the body holds a resolution.
To hold your sweet animal body in loneliness is to nourish yourself with your own sacred touch.
To return to your pulsing heart with tenderness is to be the soul friend that you seek.
The deepest loneliness comes from leaving yourself.
This is why we can feel so alone amongst a group of people.
What if your loneliness was not something to fear or run from,
But instead a gentle teacher showing you where you have flown away.
To hold your loneliness with reverence is to be at once the parent and the child.
To see,
Truly see,
Yourself alone and aching is to replenish the inner well that has run dry.
Slowly remove your hands from your heart and belly and hold something else.
Cup your face.
Run your fingers along your thighs.
Press your palms into your lower back.
With each touch,
Feel the friendship of self overflowing into each cell,
Each muscle,
Each pore,
And each bone.
Imagine yourself a golden cup filling with azure waters.
Fill yourself to the brim.
Feel the electric vibration of your own awareness as you take three more ecstatic breaths.
Open your eyes and smile.
Welcome home,
Sweet friend.
