How To Beat Loneliness & Isolation

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Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Social isolation, and the loneliness that can come with it, is a growing threat to the good mental health of old and young alike.

  • We all have different levels of need for human connection, and that’s ok!

    • Some of us may be very comfortable with a lot of alone time—but need someone to talk to sometimes.

    • Some of us may need near-constant company to feel at our best—and that’s fine too! We just need to plan accordingly.

  • Today’s main feature has ideas for each of those situations!

• When it comes to supplements, sometimes cost is no guarantee of quality.

  • Ora combats this in three ways (see today's sponsor section for details!)

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

How to Deal with Negative Emotions: Daily Proven Techniques

A feature of being human is that a lot of the time we feel so much more than we spontaneously realize we feel. Sometimes, it only becomes obvious when we're in a position to process it and move on from it.

Alain de Botton explains how we can recognize this and how we can handle it:

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Prefer text? Click here to read the transcript!

🫂 MAIN FEATURE

Overcoming Loneliness & Isolation

One of the biggest mental health threats that faces many of us as we get older is growing isolation, and the loneliness that can come with it. Family and friends thin out over the years, and getting out and about isn’t always as easy as it used to be for everyone.

Nor is youth a guaranteed protection against this—in today’s world of urban sprawl and nothing-is-walkable cities, in which access to social spaces such as cafés and the like means paying the rising costs with money that young people often don’t have… And that’s without getting started on how much the pandemic impacted an entire generation’s social environments (or lack thereof).

Why is this a problem?

Humans are, by evolution, social creatures. As individuals we may have something of a spectrum from introvert to extrovert, but as a species, we thrive in community. And we suffer, when we don’t have that.

What can we do about it?

We can start by recognizing our needs, such as they are, and identifying to what extent they are being met (or not).

• Some of us may be very comfortable with a lot of alone time—but need someone to talk to sometimes.

• Some of us may need near-constant company to feel at our best—and that’s fine too! We just need to plan accordingly.

In the former case, it’s important to remember that needing someone to talk to is not being a burden to them. Not only will our company probably enrich them too, but also, we are evolved to care for one another, and that itself can bring fulfilment to them as much as to you. But what if you don’t a friend to talk to?

• You might be surprised at who would be glad of you reaching out. Have a think through whom you know, and give it a go. This can be scary, because what if they reject us, or worse, they don’t reject us but silently resent us instead? Again, they probably won’t. Human connection requires taking risks and being vulnerable sometimes.

• If that’s not an option, there are services that can fill your need. For some, therapy might serve a dual purpose in this regard. For others, you might want to check out the list of (mostly free) resources at the bottom of this article 🙂 

In the second case (that we need near-constant company to feel at our best) we probably need to look more at our overall lifestyle, and find ways to be part of a community. That can include:

• Living in a close-knit community (places with a lot of retirees in one place often have this; or younger folk might look at communal living/working spaces, for example)

• Getting involved in local groups (you can check out NextDoor.com or MeetUp.com for this)

• Volunteering for a charity (not only are acts of service generally fulfilling in and of themselves, but also, you will probably be working with other people of a charitable nature, and such people tend to make for good company!)

Need a little help?

There are many, many organizations that will love to help you (or anyone else) overcome loneliness and isolation.

Rather than list them all here and make this email very long by describing how each of them works, here’s a great compilation of resources:

Healthline: How To Deal With Loneliness (Resources)

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Ora | Purer, Cleaner, Stronger: Supplements That Work!

It’s easy to have an expectation of “you get what you pay for”, but one of the biggest problems buying supplements is that sometimes cost is no guarantee of quality.

In other words, you can pay too much and still get something that was made in someone’s shed and contains many impurities, or was manufactured in a way that completely defeats the purpose and robs the supplement of any effectiveness.

Ora combats this in three ways:

• Having high quality (and transparent, verifiable!) sources

• Having rigorous testing of their products

  • (by 3rd party labs; you can see those test results on their website)

• Having a 60-day no-quibble money-back guarantee—if you’re not satisfied with the results, they’ll refund you in full

As for what they sell, they have a range of 28 products so far, for comprehensive all-around health.

Click here to check out Ora and start enjoying better daily cumulative results from your supplementation!

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

🌎 AROUND THE WEB

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• Similar symptoms, biological abnormalities underlie long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome

• Eating a Mediterranean diet is good for you and can save you money too

• Boosting one amino acid might be the secret to longer lifespans

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

How to Be Your Own Therapist: Boost your mood and reduce your anxiety in 10 minutes a day - by Owen O’Kane

Finding the right therapist can be hard. Sometimes, even just accessing a therapist, any therapist, can be hard, if circumstances are adverse. Sometimes we'd like therapy, but want to feel "better prepared for it" before we do.

Owen O'Kane, a highly qualified and well-respected psychotherapist, wants to put some tools in our hands. The premise of this book is that "in 10 minutes a day" one can give oneself an amount of therapy that will be beneficial.

Naturally, in 10 minutes a day, this isn't going to be the kind of therapy that will work through major traumas, so what can it do?

Those 10 minutes are spread into three sessions:

• 4 minutes in the morning

• 3 minutes in the afternoon

• 3 minutes in the evening

The idea is:

• To do a quick mental health "check-in" before the day gets started, ascertain what one needs in that context, and make a simple plan to get/have it.

• To keep one's mental health on track by taking a little pause to reassess and adjust if necessary

• To reflect on the day, amplify the positive, and let go of the negative to what extent is practical, in order to rest well ready for the next day

Where O'Kane excels is in explaining how to do those things in a way that is neither overly simplistic and wishy-washy, nor so arcane and convoluted as to create more work and render the day more difficult.

In short, this book is a great prelude to (or adjunct to) formal therapy, and for those for whom therapy isn't accessible and/or desired, a great way to keep oneself on a mentally healthy track.

Click here to check out "How To Be Your Own Therapist" on Amazon today, and take appropriate care of yourself!

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday,

The 10almonds Team