Love and loneliness are intimately related. They either open up your heart, or completely shut it down.
Most of us will experience love at some point in our lives, and are left hurt when that love ends. You are bound to get hurt by love when you are younger, as you most likely do not have the capacity to stay and integrate the process of detachment and lost connection just yet.
Decisions You Make Out of Self-Preservation
Often you make a decision in the moment of hurt to withdraw within yourself. In the process, however, you close off parts of yourself to avoid getting hurt more deeply in the present, or later on.
You are bound to get hurt by love when you are younger, as you most likely do not have the capacity to stay and integrate the process of detachment and lost connection just yet.
When you don’t open up and allow yourself to be vulnerable and connected with others, you cannot invite love in; furthermore, the price you pay is the onset of loneliness.
The human need for connectivity is as old as mankind. When we lived in tribes, the punishment of exile from the tribe was considered worse than death. You can imagine, then, how deep your need for connection is and how profound is the pain you experience through the loss of love.
Reverting Back to Love by Moving Through Loneliness
As an exercise, observe yourself escaping into loneliness. Follow that feeling so as to really feel the pain of loneliness-- in the heart, the breathing, and the chest. Once you build up a capacity to feel through it, you will come upon the pain of the loss of love. See if you can do the same with this feeling. Feel it in its entirety without further dwelling on it as self-pity or escaping from it, but become fully aware of the depth of that pain and the sorrow of it.
Resilience is the Container, Love is the Healer
By giving attention to that loss of love and the memories and pain attached to it, you will heal the pain of loneliness.
Through connecting and loving again, now with more resilience, you will have the capacity to love more deeply, knowing that love and relationships will come and go, as with all things in life that are bound by time and space.
How is your heart area? Leave your comments here below.
Gosh. I feel liberated. Not lonely. Liberated to embrace nature. To embrace the things I love doing. Sacred in my solitude. Liberated to connect at a more profound level to everything and everyone. I am alone. Yes. Alone to be my true self. Not existing to live up to the expectation of others. Not having to justify or explain my actions. Just to ‘do ‘ from my heart. Lonely no. Free to be my most authentic self. Yes.
‘Letting love in” what does that mean? We ARE love. Having to measure yourself by someone else’s feeling of love for you is odd. Especially since human love is so intimately tied up with our imprinting when we are pre verbal. Someone else’s feeling of love for you has more to do with them than it does with you….
‘The greatest love is the one inside of you’
I guess I’m not certain how we “choose” loneliness? Perhaps that escapes me. I live alone and most of the time I am okay but there are times when I just feel so devastatingly lonely. The feeling is actually difficult to describe. I could totally relate to the article’s mention of being banished – and that being a fate worse than death– because I’ve felt that devastation. I’m just not certain – in this day and digital age what it is that we do when attempting to make new connections with people is quite difficult and potentially dangerous. It seems to me that mankind now appears to need companionship less and less – with phones in their faces, living in some sort of virtual world. Perhaps it’s just me, but between that barrier and the level of distrust in the world- establishing new contacts is extremely difficult. Believe me, I know I need people, I just do not know how to break through these walls, and I have tried. I detest living my life as it is now, however, I have few answers as to how it is that I can change it. I will never give up hope on mankind — but there are days when I will be alone the rest of my life.
Gina, I totally hear you. I have been exactly where you are. And somethings still find moments of the loneliness you describe, but I have learned how to make connections, and this has helped me a lot. Let me know if you’d like me to share how I have done this, in a safe way.
Why is it then, after so much trauma over many years, that I feel so at peace being alone. I have my work but no close relationships there. I live alone with my dog. I’m ok with it. Do I just need to continue processing trauma?
Hi Tami. It might be that your created circumstances protect you from being triggered, but also shield you from further processing your Post-Traumatic Stress. You will know when the tie is right to engage in relationships again. Everything has its time and place.
My heart is in the vault for the time being . I hope I want to get it out of there one day
Shattered