Loneliness – A Physical and Energetic Experience
In recent times, I have increasingly chosen to go into my emotions as they arise, rather than avoiding them. I try to sit down and sense where they appear in the body. When energy or emotions are present and manifest as physical sensations, it can feel as though pain or heaviness moves around the body. One emotion may be anchored in the head, the stomach, or the legs, while another may move between the head, shoulders, sacrum, and knees, just to name a few examples.
Although I experience physical sensations in specific areas connected to certain emotions, I do not know whether others would feel the same emotions in the same places in their bodies. This shifting heaviness or pain can, however, very much be a purely energetic experience.
I would like to focus on one particular emotion this time: loneliness.
When I experience loneliness, this feeling often appears most strongly in the front of my head. If I step deeply into this emotion, which many people are experiencing at this time, I sense that the energy reaches the brow center, the heart center, the solar plexus, and the root center. The feeling of loneliness often seems to create energetic heaviness across the forehead and down toward the temples. When this happens, one becomes heavy in thought, as the intuitive energy appears to be blocked.
For me, the feeling of loneliness does not necessarily relate to being physically alone. I can be surrounded by family and friends, working in a crowded workplace, or simply among people, and still feel lonely. Loneliness is, in essence, an inner feeling that relates to ourselves and fundamentally has nothing to do with others. To some extent, it is connected to being unseen, unheard, or perhaps most of all, disconnected from oneself.
Although the feeling of loneliness arises from time to time, it is not necessarily constant. It comes and goes and varies in intensity depending on seasons or circumstances. Those who experience loneliness can also feel comfortable with themselves and be enough for themselves. Some people rarely or never experience loneliness, despite often being alone, while others experience it very strongly.
Some choose solitude in order to work through the loneliness within themselves, and this can be a helpful, to spend quality time alone and explore the roots of the feeling. By entering into the sensations, memories connected to the emotion may surface. Some people isolate themselves even more because of loneliness or reduce contact with others, while others cannot imagine being alone.
When we experience loneliness while being alone, we can ask ourselves whether the feeling would change if we were in the company of others. We can imagine being surrounded by family, friends, colleagues, or other groups and sense whether that would change our inner state. If we feel that it would make no difference, then this is a deeper feeling that does not shift through interaction with others.
If we never feel loneliness, whether alone or in company, then we are free from this emotion. Many people experience loneliness when they face situations where they must be alone after having been accustomed to being surrounded by others. If loneliness arises because we feel bored when alone and long for companionship, it may be a sign that we need to work with this feeling within ourselves.
We may need time to face loneliness, whether that takes a single day, many weeks, months, or even years. Many experience this feeling strongly when children leave home or when moving to a new place, where separation from family, friends, and familiar surroundings occurs. Although communication with loved ones is easier today due to technology, it is never the same as being in the same physical space with one’s people.
The experience of deep loneliness can be part of the soul’s journey, an opportunity to face the emotions connected to it. It is important to allow this feeling to arise without shame. It is also precious to be with oneself in stillness and calm, in order to get to know who we are at a deeper level.
Loneliness, to some extent, is about having abandoned ourselves somewhere along life’s path. This often happens because we have adapted ourselves in order to belong.
