Transcript for "Loneliness and Connection" Video
We can still feel lonely in a crowd or surrounded by familiar faces at a family gathering. And we can still feel lonely even though we have immediate access to millions of people via our smart phones and the internet at any time of the day. Loneliness does not necessarily result from isolation.
Loneliness is a feeling of lacking companionship, of lacking the intimacies of significant human connection. It is when our expectations for companionship are left unmet or our feelings are not returned, do we feel lonely. It is an inescapable part of being a sensitive and intelligent, but ultimately independent being. Loneliness “is a tax we must pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind” (The Book of Life). The feeling of loneliness is a built in biological function that indicates when important social connections are absent in our lives, and motivates us to reconnect with others.
But, meaningful connection can be difficult to obtain. It can take considerable energy to listen to another person and to enter sympathetically into their lives (The Book of Life). It is unlikely that we will ever find someone who we can truly connect with, who can truly understand us, but they do exist. We may pass them on the street or at a traffic light, not ever knowing the chemistry we had for connection. In our current state of humanity, bound as individual entities, some would say that we are fated to be lonely.
Loneliness is a feeling of lacking companionship, of lacking the intimacies of significant human connection. It is when our expectations for companionship are left unmet or our feelings are not returned, do we feel lonely. It is an inescapable part of being a sensitive and intelligent, but ultimately independent being. Loneliness “is a tax we must pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind” (The Book of Life). The feeling of loneliness is a built in biological function that indicates when important social connections are absent in our lives, and motivates us to reconnect with others.
But, meaningful connection can be difficult to obtain. It can take considerable energy to listen to another person and to enter sympathetically into their lives (The Book of Life). It is unlikely that we will ever find someone who we can truly connect with, who can truly understand us, but they do exist. We may pass them on the street or at a traffic light, not ever knowing the chemistry we had for connection. In our current state of humanity, bound as individual entities, some would say that we are fated to be lonely.