Alright so that's a large question and hardly new. But I'd like to think about it. It seems to me a many-faceted beauty.
A few points to empty my brain on the subject:
People report feelings of loneliness when surrounded by friends, families or strangers and there is plenty of evidence to support the notion that a lack of company does not necessarily equate to loneliness (I would say, ergo not at all).
Some people find pets (I think especially dogs) cure loneliness.
It comes and goes like ocean swells - one can feel completely satisfied in company that at another time was accompanied by feelings of loneliness.
Even people in solid, loving relationships report feeling lonely sometimes.
So what on earth is it? A feeling? A way of being? A chemical shift in the brain?
Maybe this is glaringly obvious, but is it the emotional response to believing oneself unloved? Could that be all it is? If that were so, I'd say then that it starts with 'unloved' as a way of being, resulting in loneliness as the feeling and then a chemical shift in the brain that produces lingering feelings of depression.
Hmmm?
this is interesting!
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about the chemical nature of loneliness, because it can sweep across you and go in a quite fleeting way - here one second, gone the next.
Also, there are times when it plain does not make sense to feel lonely, as you say we can feel lonely when surrounded by loving people, and not at all lonely at times when we are alone, so its not about company.
I'm interested in your link to loveability - its not one i had thought about, and i think it very likely that it could relate to that basic doubt that many of us has which questions our worthiness.
i wonder too if it relates to the fact that we really are alone, that no one else can be us or really know who we are, what we think, feel, experience...does loneliness arise there?
I reflect that as a child i felt very lonely, i was acutely aware that i was on my own. Do all children feel that? if they do then maybe when we feel lonely we are reverting to that childhood state for a while. I don't know about this reflection, i don't know if other children with lots of siblings around them DO feel lonely? I'll ask around!
Maybe the feeling of loneliness is a moment of realisation of the blindingly obvious, we are alone inside our heads and bodies, and for us to act and be is entirely up to us - albeit with the support of our family and friends and the community?