Loneliness & Quality Of Life | How Can I Feel More Connected?

Loneliness is a psychological condition that does not necessarily refer to being alone but how connected to others you feel. This explains why sometimes you can feel lonely even though you are with friends or in a crowd.

Loneliness often results from the absence of a quality relationship that makes us feel understood and valued.

Continuous feelings of loneliness can have a negative effect on your quality of life, and your ability to form and maintain healthy relationships.

5 Lifestyle Tips On How To Feel More Connected

Learning how to cope with loneliness is important.

Here are some self-help tips to help you feel more connected with yourself and others:

1. Spend time with people that make you feel heard, understood and valued, like going out for a coffee, lunch or a walk. Surrounding yourself with positive energy can boost your self-esteem, and help you feel more connected to others.
2. Volunteering is a great way of meeting new people and making the most of your skills and experiences. Helping others can make you feel more motivated, and successful. For example, search for local charities where you could spend a few hours during the weekend.
3. Join a support group. Sharing your thoughts and feelings with people that are going through similar experiences as you can make you feel part of a team, and help you better understand who you are.
4. Understand the difference between feeling lonely and being alone. Being alone gives you peace and space to connect with yourself. Schedule time to do the things you love. For example, if you love yoga, sign up for weekly classes. Creating a scheduled time increases the chances that you will follow through.
5. Identify any negative thoughts that keep you stuck from moving forwards with your life. Often times we are our own meanest critic. Negative thoughts train our brains to see negative situations, rather than positive ones. A helpful step to changing this behavior is positive self talk. Every time you have a negative thought about yourself, try to come up with two positive things in which you like about yourself or your life.

At EmotionMatters our expert team of psychotherapists and counsellors can help you break free from feelings of loneliness.

Our aim is to help you gain a better understanding of who you are and what your strengths are in order to boost your self-confidence.

Psychotherapy will help you make sense of what has happened to you, and help you integrate new healthier ways of managing your life.