Few of us manage to go through life without experiencing the odd bout of loneliness. Sometimes there can be a fine line between some healthy, rejuvenating alone time and a feeling of heart wrenching loneliness when you are going through a loss of some kind.
Prolonged loneliness can build into feelings of loss, bereavement for the people or things that we are missing, or may never have had, and worthlessness, feeling unloved.
That must be incredibly damaging for self esteem and thinking in those terms it’s easy to see why loneliness would make a good mental health theme to work on this year.
We are more aware now of the risks of loneliness having a detrimental effect on older people who have a lost a loved one, young people living away from home for the first time, children moving to a new school. But how about someone starting a new job, it may not be in a different area necessitating a house move, but it does mean being the new person who maybe doesn’t know anyone in the new environment apart from the people who interviewed them. In some instances it is possible for us to feel lonely or alone even in a crowded room never mind in a new office, factory, warehouse etc where you don’t know anyone, don’t know processes, systems and working habits. Have you ever experienced that? If so, how did you deal with it, what helped you in that time?
If you are in that lonely place at the moment for any reason there are chaplains to connect with in the Engine Rooms most Monday and Wednesday lunch-times if you would like someone to connect with. There are also lots of good sessions available on the park to help you to find and sustain your inner well-being which, apart from learning new wellbeing techniques, provide opportunities for meeting new people, making friends and creating supportive networks.
As chaplains part of our role is to help you find ways of nourishing yourself, giving yourself time to explore what will help you to feel positive and hopeful in life. We are that listening ear that you can bounce thoughts, hopes or concerns onto. We can also sign-post you to organisations that provide extra support in a range of situations. We’re here to listen whatever you would like to talk about and if you just want to break up your day with a light-hearted conversation that’s great too.
If you don’t manage to catch up with a chaplain on site, as always you can contact us via email on info@mitechaplaincy.com where you can request a call-back, or you are very welcome to call me (Debbie) directly on my mobile: 07526 378529 either to chat or to arrange a time to meet up with myself or one of the other chaplains.
We also have a range of resources on our web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak and some that help in dealing with stress: https://mite.org.uk If you prefer you can easily keep in touch with us on social media: Facebook: @mitechaplaincy Twitter: @mitesthwarr
Photo by Orkhan Farmanli on Unsplash