"Even now, just the word "loneliness" can trigger the emotion-part melancholy and part loss-of those days. It was only after I had been doing spiritual practice for quite some time that I began to see that the emotion of loneliness is not just personal. Like anger and fear, loneliness is one of those universal, primal emotions, a groove in humanity's subconscious."
"Loneliness is more about psychic disconnection than physical solitude. To appreciate time alone, most of us need to feel we have a choice-that friends or family are no farther away than a phone call. If not, time alone can be miserable. In fact, my suspicion is that the primal feeling of loneliness has something to do with a genetic instinct. Something that equates safety with physical closeness to a tribe or family. On that pre-rational level, loneliness can feel like death."
A seventh-grade social exclusion created a lasting experience of deep loneliness that continued to trigger melancholy and a sense of loss years later. Loneliness functions as a universal, primal emotion similar to anger and fear, rooted in humanity's subconscious. The feeling reflects psychic disconnection more than physical solitude and becomes tolerable when solitude is experienced as voluntary and when connections feel accessible. An instinct links safety to physical closeness with tribe or family, making involuntary solitude feel threatening and even like death. Fear of loneliness can impede inner growth and cause people to remain in unhealthy relationships or maintain outgrown connections.
Read at Yoga Journal
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