Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

Fixing Loneliness

Fixing Loneliness

I am not sure there is a complicated strategy to fixing loneliness.

The answer is in relationships.

It is sad – but telling – that this has been one of my more popular posts.

You are not the only one longing for connection.

This even touches on one of the points examined in Raising Girls, By: Melissa Trevathan and Sissy Goff.

Girls don’t just need good friends to provide expression and security, they need a place that offers them influence as well.

I learned that loneliness isn’t fixed by listening to other people talk. You can cure your loneliness only by doing the talking yourself and—most important—being heard.

-Scott Adams, How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big

How Not To Be Lonely

How Not To Be Lonely

How do you not be lonely?

You participate.

Participate in others lives.

Because, how often do we shirk that which is so important?  How often do we turn each other down?

Maybe take the easy way.

We skip a wedding. Then a few birthday parties.

That funeral is probably not that big of a deal either.

You turn your phone on silent and order pizza.

Then maybe you decide to not have kids because they are too expensive, you know.

And then the years go by.

None of that is the end of the world.

But where does it leave you? What richness of missed relationships is overlooked?

“Share your life with the people you love, even if it means saving up for a ticket and going without a few things for a while to make it work. There are enough long lonely days of the same old thing, and if you let enough years pass, and if you let the routine steamroll your life, you’ll wake up one day, isolated and weary, and wonder what happened to all those old friends. You’ll wonder why all you share is Christmas cards, and why life feels lonely and bone-dry.”

-Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet (Amazon)

Sterling Terrell