HOW TO BE LESS LONELY IN A BUSY AND ISOLATING WORLD

PODCAST #237

In this episode of Confidence on the Go we are chatting about:

• The realness of loneliness in a world of busyness
• How to combat loneliness if you work from home
• The trick to leveraging your loneliness in a powerful way

SPONSORSHIP NOTE:

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I am dedicated this month to help educate others on the importance of environmental toxins and their links to breast cancer. Did you know that over 99% of breast cancer tissue contains parabens? “Parabens are chemicals used as a preservative in a number of cosmetics and personal care products including deodorant, shampoo, makeup, lotions and oral care products, as well as in processed food items and some pharmaceutical products. Underarm deodorants often contain parabens and have been thought to contribute to an increased risk of high paraben levels in the body that have been linked to breast cancer.” Parabens are everywhere BUT you can find products (like Beautycounter) without them! Please, please, please, please read your labels! Please, if you have little ones, buy wipes that are paraben-free (I suggest Water Wipes or Wegman’s brand). We can’t control our exposure to everything BUT we CAN control our exposure to this!!!!!  Shop our paraben-free products at www.beautycounter.com/trishblackwell 

Negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life; they’re big, flashing signs that something needs to change. –Gretchen Rubin

THE REALNESS OF LONELINESS IN OUR “CONNECTED” WORLD:

Ya’ll, I’m a super social, super connected person, but I feel lonely all the time. It is part of motherhood, it is part of entrepreneurship, it is part of being a go-getter, and to be honest, it is part of our “connected” social media lives where we have thousands of friends but we don’t have anyone we can call when we are sick in bed, our husbands are out of town and we just need a cup of chicken noodle soup.

-Even surrounded by friends, schedules / naps can be wildly different causing you to constantly miss paths

-Growing a vision for your career and being a leader in life can be lonely – it’s lonely at the time, it’s lonely when you are committed to doing the right thing, it’s lonely when you are committed to being different

-Too busy of a schedule can even compromise your best relationships – making you feel lonely around the people you most love.

Real friendships, real connections, real trust between neighbors takes time. It is formed in the little interactions, the little hellos, the little ways in which we share life together – and it connects us in a real way.

When you admit that you need people in your life (we all do), you can then stop thinking that you need to be a superhero being everything to everyone but yourself.

Taking care of your social needs is as important to taking care of your physical, spiritual or nutritional needs. … ignoring your social core creates the expectation of yourself to be an emotionally voided machine.

14 WAYS TO BE LESS LONELY IN A BUSY AND ISOLATING WORLD

1. Acknowledge that you are lonely
2. Address your personal social needs – investigate where they are not being met
3. Disconnect from social media, create non-screen time in your life
4. Pick up the phone and make more phone calls
5. Write more hand-written cards
6. Create more space for people in your daily schedule – even for strangers
7. Cherish little interactions and mundane conversations
8. Go out of your way for friend dates
9. Prioritize communication with your significant other
10. Connect daily without distraction, face-to-face with your significant other
11. Communicate your social needs to your partner and support them with theirs
12. Give of your time, heart or love to someone who might be more lonely than you
13. Focus less on your to-do list and instead value your day based on the quality of your emotional connections
14. Share your heart and your story openly – you never know how your vulnerability and openness might inspire someone else to realize that they are not alone. (I felt lonely and like I would never be understood until I read Geneen Roth’s books, which changed my life and gave me hope in my eating disorder.)

HOW TO COMBAT LONELINESS IF YOU WORK FROM HOME

1. Create office hours for yourself and treat your office like you would any other (get dressed, show up as your best self).
2. Schedule set breaks and get outside.
3. Arrange midday workouts with friends or get yourself in an environment around other people (the gym, the coffee shop, going to the grocery store mid-day, etc)
4. Call or Facetime a friend outside of your work hours
5. Spend less time on social media and more time learning

THE TRICK TO LEVERAGING YOUR LONELINESS IN A POWERFUL WAY

When you know you are better because of other people, you learn to reprioritize your go-go-go / achieve-achieve-achieve / be productive – be productive – be productive attitude and you are better able to slow down and connect.

When we connect in the world more deeply, we live more intimately and more beautifully.

Loneliness then, can serve to fire up our lives and fan the flame of what really matters.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

College of Confidence in November is dedicated to study on how to tap into your inner winner and punching fear in the face so that you can live your best life, your best relationships and your best career. If you have been craving a way to excel in a new way or if you just need a boost of encouragement and steady support, come join us today at www.trishblackwell.com/college. I am excited to pour into you personally – and gosh, all for less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day. If these podcasts have blessed your life, then you have no idea what you’re in for when you come join our Confidence Tribe in The College of Confidence!

LISTENER OF THE EPISODE:

Testimonial: These podcasts have changed my life. I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars trying to find my “ah-ha” moment, and it has been on iTunes all along. Sometimes I think of all the years I wasted plagued with self hate, negativity, disordered eating, etc. But then I remember that it is never too late to radically change how I interact with myself and the world.

Trish, thank you so much for having a podcast about confidence, inner strength, and radical candor about goals. Thanks to you and my new mantra “I don’t have to fail”, for the first time I actually believe that I won’t.

-EMMA ANDREWS