According to one study, 52% of Americans report feeling lonely....CONTINUE READING
That stat gets even worse when 58% of them report feeling that no one truly knows them and 57% say they eat every single meal alone.
But why?
And is there anything that can be done to change it?
During his lifetime, Carl Jung had this to say:
“Loneliness does not come from having no people… but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important.”
I get it too.
During my years growing up I had loads of friends but often felt like the odd one out. Because I wasn’t able to confide in anyone, I bottled up anger, suppressed it down and lived with anxiety as a result. At times, it felt like I was one step away from going mad.
This meant I often retreated to my room and stayed there. It was my inability to express myself that ostracised me, as Carl Jung said.
Then when I was 20 years old I’d had enough so I decided to go travelling.
Not long into my trip I fell in love with scuba diving and decided to become an instructor. My whole life changed in that moment and among other things, I met my first best friend. We were living the kind of life we could only dream of and her friendship showed me that the world can be rich and meaningful even if there’s just one person in it who gets what we’re about. On the flip side, it can also feel terribly lonely when it’s full of people who don’t.
“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.” — John Lennon
The danger of being the “nice guy”
Being ‘nice’ is something I mastered growing up. My family home was loving but volatile so being nice was my coping mechanism. It was my way of keeping the balance and at one time, it was my saviour. It only became a burden years later when…
