2. Assess How Much Connection You Need

When you start reaching out to people not every interaction will be a success. maybe its a small talk Or the passerby you smile at on the street may stare at the ground and keep moving. Interactions that turn out this way don’t mean you’re a failure, or that no one wants to talk to you. As Cacio...

1. Don’t Blame Your Social Skills

When you’re feeling lonely, it’s easy to blame it on your lack of social skills. In general, though, a lack of social skills isn’t the issue. Rather, it’s that “feeling lonely makes us less likely to employ the skills we have” .

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Once you’ve resolved to become more connected with others, Cacioppo recommends finding opportunities “to get small doses of the positive sensations that come from positive social interactions”.

Each positive interaction you have gives you further evidence that you can connect with others. T...

1. Intimate connectedness: This is connection “up close and personal,” typically with a significant other.
2. Relational connectedness : This is the broader (but still close) connection you have with friends and family.
3. Collective connectedness –This type of connection describes be...

To start, when we talk about the “pain” of loneliness, that’s more than just a metaphor. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have observed that the experience of social rejection activates the same region of the brain that “registers emotional responses to physical pain...

Given that it shares the same root word as “alone,” it’s easy to assume loneliness is just the absence of contact with other people.

As Cacioppo explains in his book (Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick). loneliness is not mere...