December 16, 2014
We all experience loneliness at one time or another. However, how we react to it differs depending on how we feel about ourselves. It is really a state of mind. When you feel good about yourself you are likely to use loneliness as a time to reflect about what is going on in your life and find ways to be more productive and creative. What you really experience in this instance is solitude. However, when you feel bad about yourself you may use loneliness to justify all the negative feelings that you may be experiencing about yourself. You can either feel good about having some alone time or you can feel miserable about it. It is really a choice that only you can make.
The sad feelings that you experience during your alone time, is certainly not a reflection of who you are as a person but a reflection of how much more you need to work on yourself. Maxwell Maltz said once “If you make friends with yourself, you will never be alone.” This is really where your work needs to begin. If you like who you are, many people will enjoy sharing their time with you. If you don’t, they will not know how to share that it with you. As May Sarton said once, “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.”