Loneliness is a subjective feeling that people are not with you, people don’t understand you, you don’t feel connected, you feel alone. And what’s interesting is loneliness is different from social isolation. It is really ironic that someone can have wide network of people around them and still feel lonely. And that is majorly my problem as well. Being surrounded with people I always feel lonely. So that means lonelyness and social isolation are 2 different things. And I fall in 2nd category.
So let’s talk about people who are socially connected still lonely. So first of all we need to understand what is the quality of interaction we have if we say we are socially connected and a lot of people will say that we are mostly connected socially online a lot these days, that means the social connectivity that we feel is not in real life, then secondly when you are connecting with people are you making yourself vulnerable. Because in reality online everyone portray the perfect life, no one displays the imperfections so first of all you have to decide are you willing to do that and as a result the person you are doing this is willing to receive this. Here I would like to state a beautiful quote “Compassionate listening is giving permission to the other person to empty their heart.” – Thich Nhat Hanh.
And now so how do we become Compassionate listeners? Compassion is empathy in action and empathy is gateway to compassion. Listening is very important without judgement, without imposing your point of view. That means we need to be that someone who can listen and give you the space to unload yourself. And trust me being a compassionate listener is a Privilige, a quality that most of us are lacking today.
Tripts 