By Amirah ‘Afifah
Loneliness can be an overwhelming factor that never seems to fill in the void in our hearts, body or mind. We often seek out to fill the void by distancing ourselves from others and get ourselves cooped up on the bed or couch. It is an effort when we try to seek out companionship or an interaction that we deserve. However, these interactions can be dull, meaningless, energy draining or uninteresting.
Like an introvert myself, I seek interactions with others only when I need to or understand myself or the other person better, seeking depth and intellectual and emotional connection. Even being with a place full of people makes me stressed and can make me feel lonely and like “Oh, man. When is this gonna end?!”. And you know it when you keep on looking at your watch. XD
A juxtaposition.
How does anyone fill up the emptiness in his or her shell then? Firstly, I believe it is imperative to know and acknowledge the reason for loneliness. Questioning yourself to why you feel lonely and unfulfilled will lead you to a greater purpose which then motivates you to fulfill your needs.
A great context would be this period of the coronavirus circuit breaker. Many have reported feeling depressed, loss of motivation, boredom and loneliness. Not able to dine out, social meetings with friends or family, unable to visit areas of interest such as the library, museum, sports courts, the pool and etcetera.
We all know that social distancing matters. Who in the world would sacrifice himself and 30 others during this virus outbreak to happily throw a party? Not to mention that there will be other unexpected guests placing a fine and throwing everyone out. Whoooh, lucky the person with the flooded bills.
Jokes aside, there are some ways that we can all feel satisfied, fulfilled and not alone (apart from bonding with our roommates and family members.)
- As cliche as it seems, use Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp Video call and whatever you’d like to have a video chat on. Interacting with others by viewing their face or listening to them can induce amounts of oxytocin and serotonin (hormones that are linked to happiness). So if you are bored, call a friend or video-call!
- Start on a project. Let creativity and your brain juices flow and occupy your time. Who knows you can create a piece or a theory or even create a terrarium or a nice place for my pets?
- Visualise a happy place or an event. This will make you feel relaxed and refreshed, knowing that you can create almost anything in your mind.
- Read and increase your knowledge and practicality of doing it. An example would be to learn about the sunnahs of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w and act upon it. Another would be learning food science, maybe you can be the next food scientist and whip up interesting dishes!
- Upskill or learn something that you really like. It could be coding with Python, learning about astronomy, using trigonometry in math, weaving, using different mediums to create an interesting art piece and etcetera.
- Write all your worries, thoughts and frustrations.
- Home workout or dance.
All the best!
mentally blessed 