Loneliness. The one emotion everyone is terrified of feeling. The one that is demonized. To many people it means that your life is a hell hole and you should automatically be pitied. Although it is a scary feeling, let's not confuse it with being alone.
Being alone takes a while to get used to, but as time goes by, it becomes comforting. You become your own person, you figure out what you are passionate about, you ponder about what you strive to be, and you confront the “dark” side of your mind. The part everyone fears. You cannot run away from it and the only option is to face your “darkest” thoughts. The ones you have been trying to censor out since you were a kid. Whether it is about a traumatic experience or one of your insecurities, we are all guilty of running away.
On the other hand, loneliness is being unhappy because you are alone, or at least feel like it. That's the funny thing about loneliness, you don't have to be alone to experience it. Making an extra friend or two won't solve your problems, finding where it is rooted from will. Loneliness is a scary place for many people, including myself, but we have to experience it in order to grow.
Personally, I think we should all try being a bit more alone. However, I don’t think that it looks the same for everyone. That's the beautiful part about it, it's customizable, you can cater to your different traumas and issues. We are all capable of finding the light in being alone, it just depends on how we reach for it.
Being comfortable with yourself and being alone is something that takes time getting used to. This article describes what it's like to feel lonely and to be alone. We often associate the both of these like they are a pair, but they are not, just like stated in this article. We can find comfort in being alone, but feeling lonely is a completely different feeling. Maybe that's why we think these two things go together. But at one point of our lives there is going to be a time when we have to be alone, because only then, is when we grow.
This is such a good article Crystal!!!
Crystal, I love that this article highlights the huge difference between being alone and feeling lonely, and that it encourages people to take that time to be alone. I can't count the number of times I've wanted to be alone, or felt lonely. But I'm able to recognize the difference between the two. Whether I want to be alone, or feel lonely, I try to take time to self-reflect, or I accept that both occurrences are normal. I've found that both of these methods are beneficial to me. I agree that we grow from scary experiences. So, I want to encourage people to find it in themselves to overcome scary situations, and find themselves by taking time to be alone…
This is one my favorite articles I have read by far, the author has a great interpretation on showing what alone and lonely is. You don't have to be alone to be lonely, lonely is a feeling and it honestly is. I would be lying to myself if I said that I want have alone time, I don't, because I really don't want to reexperience the pain I felt before. By overthinking all of my trauma, because that's what being alone causes me; to overthink so I try my best to never be alone and always have amazing/the best company so I can to get my mind off of my pain. But I know someday I'll face it, someday. This…
I agree with the fact that everyone should have personal/ alone time, having time for yourself can be very beneficial. Not so much for someone who is lonely, which in my opinion is one of the suckiest feelings ever. For someone who feels lonely it may not matter if they're alone or not. When one feels lonely it can not be so easily solved as putting them around other people, loneliness is more of a mental than physical thing.