The pain of loneliness

Anyone who has experienced loneliness can tell you, the wound of loneliness is as deep as any physical injury. Yet, are wounds of the mind recognized as such? Not according to Psychologist Dr. Guy Winch.

Winch describes loneliness to a psychological injury that distorts our perception of the world. Not only that, it is linked to the similar health consequences of smoking cigarettes. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, over-eating, and a depressed immune response are only a few of the physical results of being lonely. Loneliness is serious business.

Loneliness can be a result from rejection:

a cycle of addiction, anxiety and stress, separation of loved ones and unlimited self-limiting beliefs. Stats say loneliness makes us 14% more likely to die. The old saying goes; “she died of loneliness”, is truer than we think.

When feelings of loneliness permeate our mind, our body and soul aches and many of us eat to make ourselves feel better. But then we feel miserable. We then deepen the wound by self-inflicting mental cruelty. Like rubbing salt in a fresh cut, our mental rumination creates malice towards our own being. We then look inward rather than reaching out for help. Our loneliness deepens separation. This can drive us into clinical depression.

Winch goes on to say that negative and cruel rumination is habit forming and can cause us to limit our potential to succeed. So when we discuss weight loss, the same rings true. He goes as far as to say that many people’s default self-limiting beliefs convince them not to succeed. Meaning they operate below their full potential.

But there is hope; rumination can be interrupted through distraction. Once we become aware of our negative habit, we can interrupt our pattern with as little as a 2 minute distraction. Within a few short weeks, our negative pattern is lessoned and we rise above our lonely feelings.

We understand that changing one’s mind can be difficult. This is because our default belief system gives us an automated response when lonely. Yet something as simplistic as distraction can reverse the psychological and physical harm.

We understand that loneliness impacts our ability to access our willpower.

Loneliness is one big reason why we fail at dieting. When our willpower is suppressed, we tend to eat to make ourselves feel better. Unfortunately this form of "food" distraction, is self limiting and perpetuates our demise. The shot of Dopamine that floods our system, when we snack on high calorie junk food, quickly fades before cycling downward towards depression.

There are plenty of reasons to change our ways, beyond weight loss. Rising beyond outdated self-limiting beliefs, our reaction to life, on many levels can shift. We can operate at our full potential and we can convince ourselves of our success, by first taking control of our minds.

I believe cleaning up our psychology is the next human leap in, not only will it change our own lives, but that of mankind. N.L.P. can get you there faster and I can help.