It is no surprise that this year’s theme for Mental Health awareness week is Loneliness.
More and more of us suffered from loneliness throughout the pandemic. It has had an impact on physical and mental wellbeing and over long periods of time it can lead to isolation and depression.
There are 2 types of loneliness:
- Social loneliness is a lack of connection with others
- Emotional loneliness is the lack of a meaningful relationship in your life.
Click here to read more about the signs of loneliness, how it affects our health, how to overcome feelings of loneliness and how to prevent future feelings of loneliness.
Although the pandemic saw a rise in loneliness, some of us enjoyed this time. Spending some amount of time alone is good for us. It gave us time to check in with ourselves, its helps us re-connect and re-evaluate how we are feeling and what’s next. It helped us enjoy our own company and be comfortable with that.
My Own Experience
I love being alone at times. Looking back I have been like this always. Coming from a big family and being 1 of 5 siblings, I was the one who would escape to my bedroom. Taking time out to read or write in my diary as I didn’t have a phone back then and internet was limited!
Now I make sure I take time out for myself because I know it is good for my mental and physical health, and I enjoy my own company. Some of the things I do are:
- Go for a walk
- Exercise & stretching
- Reading
- Doing puzzle books
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Crafts
- Sitting in a coffee shop
These things take me away from my everyday tasks, and allows me to just home in on what I am doing at that time. Why not give it a try.
Manni x