The end of loneliness
The World Health Organization has recently moved to constitute a Commission on Social Connection, with the aim to having the issue of loneliness recognized and resourced as a global health priority. This is in the wake of research showing major impacts of loneliness and social isolation on hard health outcomes - serious increases in dementia, stroke and cardiovascular disease as well as early death. The collective socioeconomic Impacts are also very significant as the quality of our social connections weighs heavily in the safety, prosperity and even governance of our communities and societies.
The roots of loneliness and isolation are many but eventually a “shell” settles within us and we have a very hard time breaking through it and reconnecting. A number of individual and collective interventions have been tried and some have been helpful for dissolving parts of that shell, but relapse is very common. That is partly because of the intertwined causes, some external and hard to modify without some major changes in someone’s surroundings. After Self realization, we come to understand much better the roots of everything. We also find that moving too much to the left or to the right can both generate loneliness and separation, either by - to name a few - self pity or loathing or dangerous habits (on the left) or by “burning” our emotional ties and supports with excessive heat, arrogance and aggression (from the right).
But when we reach the center, stabilize there and then we start enjoying the light of Spirit, loneliness and separation simply vanish very quickly, because we transcend their causes. Even their external contributors. The consciousness of being part and parcel of the whole gives us a new and permanent connection with our fellow beings and the joy of that connection is easily felt every day. We can now emit and reciprocate detached love effortlessly and strong bonds are created thus. We become forgiving as well as humble and that takes a way most of the strain on any human relationship. We also become part of a different collective, that of realized people who share the deepest core values, the universal pattern of behavior and of communication that makes all connections smooth, spontaneous and lasting. And as loneliness and isolation remain forever behind us, so do their reverberating consequences…