Being Alone

By: David Tuffley

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Loneliness comes from feeling disconnected from the emotional support of friends and loved ones. In the modern world, the number of people who say they are lonely is rising sharply, leading some observers to call it an epidemic. Despite technology making it easier than ever to connect with people all around the world, it is ironic that never have so many people been so lonely. Being Alone can help you or someone you know to transform the negative experience of being alone to a positive one of enjoying your own company or that of others. If you already enjoy solitude, Being Alone can show you the deeper dimensions of solitude. Feeling lonely is an unavoidable fact of life, one cannot avoid it entirely. Other times we are alone because we choose to be. If you are lonely and want to know how to feel better about it, Being Alone can show you how. Being Alone takes a holistic approach to the treatment of loneliness. It goes way beyond the standard advice of “get out more” and “join community groups”. This ground has been well covered already. Instead, we help you to understand the underlying nature of loneliness and what you can do about it today. There is a dynamic tension within all of us that is created by the competing needs for solitude and introspection on the one hand, and social interaction and intimate contact on the other. We all have these competing needs, though the degree differs between individuals. Sometimes we are able to get the balance right. Other times we feel the need to be alone when we in company and of course times when we are alone and crave company. We cannot change this aspect of human nature. It is hard-wired into us at the most basic level. But we can learn to live happily if not constructively with it. LONELINESS & SOLITUDE There is a world of difference between loneliness and solitude. Solitude is when you are alone, but not feeling lonely; not sad, not depressed. It is a positive state of mind in which you are experiencing some aspect of your inner life and finding it rewarding. Introspection can lead to intuitive insights that can be very rewarding. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a state of painful social isolation and disconnection in which you might want to be in the company of others, but for a variety of reasons are unable to. Remember, what you experience when you are by yourself is something you can learn to control. It really depends on how you are thinking about the situation. As Shakespeare’s Hamlet wisely observed; there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.