All posts tagged: Loneliness

Are you lonely?

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Since COVID hit in 2020, the accompanying lockdowns have disrupted the social life of people around the world. This included stopping church services which subsequently moved to online ministry. And while online services served as a temporary stop gap, God never intended this to be permanent. Humans are social creatures. We need community. We require interaction with real people to be healthy. Recently, Dr Lalitaa Suglani, a psychologist from Britain shared 12 signs that may suggest you are struggling with loneliness: The Daily Mail provided a list of these 12 indicators: “1. Disconnecting from loved ones. 2. You constantly feel tired/exhausted. 3. You feel a loss of ‘purpose’. 4. You find yourself taking really long and hot showers. 5. You can’t stop binge-watching shows. 6. You lack motivation/are unproductive. 7. Spending lots of time on social media. 8. Feeling like ‘everything’ is an effort. 9. You have feelings of restlessness. 10. You have a negative self-image and find yourself frequently self-doubting. 11. You can appear withdrawn or moody. 12. You can have a disruption in …

Sea of Loneliness

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I used to have this sad dream. I was hungry and poor and walking around aimlessly ending up in a nice area of town by a restaurant. Inside people were eating and laughing. The food looked so good and the people in there were sitting with their friends. I had no money, no food, and no friends. I stared into that window for a long time. No one noticed me. No one saw me. I was alone in a sea of loneliness. That dream stuck with me all these years partly because it was my reality at one time. I was poor and lonely for a few years in my life. There were also years in which I was one of those people in the restaurant.  I know both sides and life is more fun and more rewarding when you have friends and money. During those times of feeling like an outcast, like I didn’t belong, I lived as an outsider. I spent much time in my one room at the back of an older …

How Lonely Are You?

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Years ago, when I was younger, I flew on an airplane from Arizona to my home in Canada. I had been to a conference and visited my parents, who were snow birds living in a trailer park. In the airport I met a woman who was also traveling north on the same plane. I like to be friendly, in a small-town way, and we chatted. The conversation continued for a while, and then I realized that she wanted more than friendly conversation with me; she had something like a romantic interest. This made me uncomfortable, and I ended the conversation politely. She seemed disappointed. This is not a story about temptation; I was a bit creeped out. On the positive side, she was good looking, and everything on her looked expensive. Also, she seemed educated and she spoke well. I suspect that she had a husband somewhere, but she never mentioned him. Where I live, rich people often have expensive condos in Arizona, usually near golf courses. I had one feeling as I walked away. …

Despite living on a planet with 7.6 billion people, many still feel alone. Credit: Xynn Tii/Flickr/Creative Commons

Survey reveals the Gen Z generation is the loneliest group of people on earth

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Earlier this month, Cigna, a global health company, released data it received based on a poll it conducted in February and March this year. Cigna wanted to find out how lonely people were and asked 20,000 Americans over the age of 18 a series of questions based on a 20-question loneliness scale developed by UCLA. This included questions asking if they had anyone to turn to or if the respondents felt like they were part of a group of friends. Based on their response, they were ranked between 20 (least lonely) to 80 (most lonely). When analyzing by age groups, Cigna discovered that the loneliest people on the planet were those referred to a Generation Z (between the ages of 18 to 22) who ranked 48. The least lonely were those over the age of 72 who scored 39. As an age-group, Generation Z was on par with another group, single parents, who despite having children similarly scored 48 in terms of loneliness. The average score for all Americans surveyed was 44 and revealed as …

Alone. Photo: Stefano Bertolotti/Flickr/Creative Commons

Praying for connection

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I am sitting in my living room in my new home. I am grateful for my life at this moment and for moving and setting up a new residence outside a small city where we have lived for almost two years. This place and space my husband and I have created is pretty good. Although, this phase of retirement living in a new place is very quiet these days. There are days and weeks where life and people I knew are just a blurred  memory.  Other days the memories are more vivid. These past two years have been a time of rest for me.  The Lord  has led me beside still waters, refreshed my soul and breathed new life and hope into me. Creating a new circle of friends is difficult. Yet, I know that God created us with a need for relationship.  From past experience, I know that it takes time and often years to find friends that you have a connection with. Stepping out of my comfort zone and extending myself to others …