6 Tips on Dealing with loneliness

As a widow or widower one of the hardest aspects I find is dealing with loneliness. Loneliness eats at your soul, it reaffirms what you have lost. I think dealing with loneliness is the most important aspect in a way of dealing with grief. At first all you want to be is alone and then you lose the will to go out, I know that I fight the feeling of being a hermit all the time. Here are 6 ways I fight the depression, fight the loneliness – feel free to add your ideas for us all to learn from at Widows Quest

1. I find it hard to socialise so now I give myself another reason – to do good for others. So I visit local hospices etc as a way of getting out, but in an environment where I am helping others deal with grief.
2. I enrolled on a course so that I am meeting people but again it doesn’t feel like socialising but about developing skills.
3. I read a lot more than I used to do, that way I can lose myself in a story or learning something new.
4. I try to keep sound in the house – playing music, playing podcast (You can find my podcast – The Engaging Brand – here.
5. I speak to myself about what is nice about being by myself – the freedom etc so that I start to enjoy it rather than dread it.
6. I telephone people much more, especially elderly relatives that love hearing a friendly voice. Again you are doing others good whilst helping yourself.

I suppose the other thing is acceptance. Lets face facts we are alone, we cannot change that! But what we can do is learn to deal with that as a fact and learn to embrace the change rather than let it eat away at our very being.