Loneliness - Quotes

I don't like to be labelled as lonely just because I am alone. - Delta Burke

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone, it’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel all alone. - Robin Williams 

If you are afraid of being lonely, do not try to be right. - Unknown

Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you. - C.G Jung

Loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself. - Rupi Kaur

Lonely is not how you feel when you’re alone. Lonely is how you feel when nobody cares. - Unknown 

One form of loneliness is to have a memory and no one to share it with. - Unknown

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. Let us not erect walls without doors of friendliness or windows of love. - Joseph Fort Newton

People think being alone makes you lonely, but I don’t think that’s true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world. - Kim Culbertson

People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about. - Anton Checkov

The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness. - Norman Cousins

The loneliest feeling in the world, you see, is not when I am alone, but when I am in love with someone who is not in love with me. - Unknown

The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with. - Wayne Dyer

Loneliness

Even in a marriage that is fundamentally fine, we may have to live with a certain amount of loneliness. No two people match perfectly, and parts of ourselves may never be understood by the person we had hoped would be our soul mate. People only partly connect – even with their nearest and their dearest.

Human beings are social creatures and most people seek company. People need affection and love. People need to belong, to be valued, and most will choose friendship and companionship at any cost – for their alternative is loneliness.

Physically, you can be by yourself and not feel lonely. You keep yourself busy one way or another, or else you enjoy the peace and quiet. It is a chance to retreat from the rat race, from the busy world outside. A time of quietude is a time of physical rest as well as spiritual "refreshing". No distractions, just pure indulgence. 

It takes a very confident person to be able to come to terms with being alone. Someone with no hang-ups. Someone who is comfortable being by himself or herself. 

I guess it's also to do with a certain amount of selfishness. A desire to be left alone to get on with one's life without too much interference from others. 

But not everyone can take a lifestyle of being alone. Indeed, for those who hate being alone, loneliness is a terrible thing. Especially if it is forced on you - when a spouse dies, for instance, or when the children grow up and leave home.

Then, the silence can be deafening. You face a void. There is a terrible ache and emptiness in your heart. The four walls of the house seem to cave in on you. 

You feel so - alone. 

Yet there are others who can be in a crowd and still feel distanced and alone. 

They are the ones with unmet needs such as feeling a lack of self-worth, a craving for love or being stuck in an unfulfilling job or relationship. For them, happiness seems elusive. And seeing others happy only makes them feel worse. 

Whether loneliness is forced on you, or you are feeling inadequate, there’s

no point wallowing in self-pity. You should drum up the courage to opt for change. Make friends, engage in social activities, or participate in community activities. Get active, do something you enjoy!

You can be as happy as you want to be. There is no need to be, or feel alone.

Do Darker Eyes See Better?

The claim: Eye colour can have an effect on vision.

The facts: Can the colour of your eyes affect more than just your dating life?

              It is well known that people with lighter eyes tend to be more sensitive to light, a result of having less pigment in the iris to protect them from sunlight.

              That can place them at a greater risk of macular degeneration and other eye-related problems. However, whether that extends their vision is not clear.

              If there are any differences, they seem to be subtle. There is little or no evidence that people with darker eye colour posses greater visual acuity, but one theory holds that those with darker eye colour produce better reaction times.

              Studies have examined this by looking at sports performance. One, at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, found that dark-eyed people performed better at “reactive-type tasks” like hitting balls, playing defence in a football game and boxing.

              However, people with light eyes did better at “self-paced tasks” like hitting a golf ball, throwing baseballs or bowling.

              A similar study of college students found that subjects with darker eyes performed better at hitting racquet balls.

              Other studies have challenge those findings, including one that looked at rugby players. Scientists say more study is needed.

The bottom line: There is limited evidence that eye colour can have a slight effect on vision.

- The New York Times 

Who Am I

The question of personal identity, in the deepest sense, is one of the most crucial to answer, and one of the most difficult questions that human beings can take on. 

We grow up hearing from other people how they think we are. But we must each engage in a process for ourselves that is one part discovery, one part invention. Some of these question is engage by taking on the big metaphysical questions – having to do with the objectivity of morality, the reality of freedom, the existence of the mind, our attitudes toward death and questions about life after death, and meaning. How you react to these issues constitutes a deep part of who you are. But another part of the identity question is broached only when we face the practical issues concerning success in this world, in our daily lives.

What are your talents? What are you values? What do you really, most deeply care about? What is your mission in life? What legacy would you most want to leave the world?

These are questions of self-knowledge. And it’s only rarely that they can all be answered early in life. We grow in our understanding of the questions, and in our vision of their answers, as we live and experiment with different possible paths. Life is supposed to be a series of adventures – adventures of self-knowledge and self-creation. As we explore the outer world, we form and learn more about our own inner worlds.

“Who am I?” is less a question to answer than it is one to live with and use. It should always be connected up with another question: “What am I becoming?” In the end, each of us is responsible for what we do with the talents and opportunities that we are given. Each of us has the chance to do things that will make a positive difference in the world and that will express well who we are. But to accomplish this, we must use the freedom that we have to find our own way forward in life. Benefiting from the wisest counsel we can find, each of us has the responsibility to develop our own wisdom and put it into action. Only the process itself will finally answer the question of who we are.

- Tom Morris - 

Mugged

              One night, Tim was walking home when, all of a sudden, a thief jumped on him. Tim and the thief began to wrestle. They rolled about on the ground and Tim put up a tremendous fight. However, the thief managed to get the better of him and pinned him to the ground. 

              The thief then went through Tim’s pockets and searched him. All he could find on Tim was twenty five cents. 

              He was so surprised at this that he asked Tim why he had bothered to fight so hard for twenty five cents. 

              “Was that all you wanted?” Tim replied, “I thought you were after the five hundred dollars I’ve got in my shoe!”

Goals

The purpose of goals is to focus our attention. The mind will not reach toward achievement until it has clear objectives. The magic begins when we set goals. It is then that the switch is turned on, the current begins to flow, and the power to accomplish becomes a reality.

Do not set your goals by what other people see important. Your goals in life are only important to you and those who love to see you succeed. Guard them well and only share them with the right people.

A goal, whatever it may be, is what gives meaning to our existence. It is the carrot of the stick that keeps us striving - that keeps us interested - that gives us a reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

How to achieve your goals?

Take small action steps first. You need not take the leap from your starting point to your ultimate goal all at once. There are usually some intermediate steps that will get you started and keep you moving toward that goal. For instance, if you want to develop a career after years at home, relate to a hobby might be the first and best action steps for you to take.

Be the kind of person on whom nothing is lost. Observe, read, experience, and explore everything in the context of some goal that will help you achieve the long-range goal you have in mind for yourself.

Think ahead. Anticipate what might happen if you are stalled on the way to your goal or if the action you take down not live up to your expectations. Have a few “What will I do if?” questions in mind as you take even the first action steps.

Learn from action. Keep evaluation the meaning and results of your actions and revising your ultimate goal accordingly. Even if your action doest not turn out satisfactorily, you can learn from it.

Don’t sit on your actions. It is great to feel good about an action you’ve taken, but when you have acted, think about what you’re going to do next. Keep up your momentum!

- Source Unknown 

Are Fish Oil Supplements Safe For Consumption?

The claim: Fish oil supplements may contain mercury

The facts: Fish oil supplements are increasingly popular with people who are attracted by claims of their cardiac benefits. However, could they expose you to the harmful pollutants found in some species of fish?

              Studies have found that most of the widely available supplements contain little or no mercury, dioxins or polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs, an industrial compound). Most companies use species of fish that are lower on the food chain, like cod and sardines, which accumulate less mercury. Many companies also distil their oils to remove contaminants.

              A report by ConsumerLab.com, which conducts independent tests of supplements, said that 41 common fish oil products were examined and none were consummated with mercury or PCBs.

              Another report by researchers at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital studied five brands and found they had “negligible amounts of mercury”. 

The bottom line: Studies suggest that fish oil products contain little or no contaminants.

- The New York Times 

What is The Good Life?

The good life is not first and foremost about acquisition, power, luxury, or status. It is not about celebrity. And it’s not an existence of unbridled, self–indulgent excess.

The life that is good must be founded on an attitude of respect and nurture toward the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual needs of every human being. It begins in an inner circle of family, extends to friends and co-workers, and finally reaches out across all artificial and natural boundaries to all of life on this earth.

The good life involves freedom, love, work, pleasure, challenge, friendship, community, service, and the sort of resources that can be used creatively.

The greatest obstacles to the good life are not external things at all, but are those inner vices that have been identified and understood since the time of the ancient philosophers. Envy, resentment, bitterness, malice, mendacity, and prejudice are all enemies of the good life and obstacles to its being lived.

The best life is a meaningful, creative, open adventure that brings opportunity, learning, laughter, and joy into the lives of other people. It’s a life that connects up with the deepest realities and aspires toward the highest possibilities.

Happiness is not best achieved by those who seek it directly; and it would seem that the same is true of the good. – Bertrand Russell 

The good life will differ in its particularities for each of us. But its general outlines are universal.

- Tom Morris 

Pneumonia

              “It’s just a cold,” the doctor said. “There is no cure, and you’ll just have to live with it until it goes away.”

              “But Doctor,” the patient whined. “It’s making me so miserable.”

              The doctor rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. Then he said, “Look, go home and take a hot bath. Then put a bathing suit on and run around the block three or four times.”

              “What!” the patient exclaimed. “I'll get pneumonia!”

              “We have a cure for pneumonia,” the doctor said.

Lessons In Life From A Dog

A friend e-mailed me this the other day. I enjoyed it, and I think you’ll like it, too.

It goes like this: 

If you can start the day without caffeine; 

if you can get going without painkiller; 

if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains; 

if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles; 

if you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it; 

if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time; 

if you can forgive a friend’s lack of consideration; 

if you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when, through no fault of your own, something goes wrong; 

if you can take criticism and blame without resentment; 

if you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him; 

if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend; 

if you can face the world without lies and deceit; 

if you can conquer tension without medical help; 

if you can relax without liquor; 

if you can sleep without the aid of drugs;

if you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed or colour, religion or politics; 

then, my friend, you’re almost as good as your dog. Almost, but not quite.

This is dedicated to every dog lover in the world.