Healing the Pain of Loneliness
Robin Williams said: I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel all alone.
So many of us can relate to this one, right?
It’s exquisitely, painfully ironic to be in the presence of others and to still feel lonely inside. The contrast is brutal.
I was reflecting on this quote and on the idea of loneliness in general, and what struck me is that loneliness seems to be about resonance.
Do we resonate with the life we’ve built? With our work, the people around us, the people closest to us, our environment?
Or is there dissonance?
When we don’t resonate, we tend to feel disconnected. Like things are happening around us but we’re out of step. And that out-of-step-ness is what loneliness is really about, when you get down to the heart of it.
We live in a culture that heavily associates the idea of loneliness with relationship status. It tells us: are you lonely? Just go find a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Oh and once you do — that’s a cure-all. If you’re in a relationship you won’t experience loneliness.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
