We are in an epidemic of loneliness.
About 1/3 of us are lonely in this world.
Yes. 1 in 3 are lonely. With loneliness being the single biggest risk factor for physical and mental health, that’s a problem. A big one.
I’ve developed an online course called The Loneliness Course. I’ve been burning the midnight oil working on it every spare minute that I haven’t been doing therapy or being a mom/wife/Oma for several months. My friends haven’t seen me much, and Husband says he is waiting for the day when I can slow down a little. The Loneliness Course is my passion project.
Lonely isn’t just about being isolated with no one around you. Often, loneliness is about feeling isolated with people all around.
And the most common response when I ask people to let me know why they don’t talk about their loneliness with others, it’s this:
If I told others that I am lonely, they would think I’m a loser.
That’s painful. And not true.
I’ve always loved this quote (you can see by the watermark logo that this poster has been on my computer for over a decade–back from when our counselling agency was known as Bergen and Associates):
My deep gladness is having people understand our need for connection.
The world’s deep hunger is to reduce the increasing levels of loneliness–to have more connection.
We are wired for connection. Neurobiologically, psychologically, physically, spiritually, emotionally. Every fibre of our being does better when we have a sense of love and belonging with people that matter around us.
When we aren’t engaged and connected, we suffer. We just do.
It’s not wrong or pathetic or weak or “loser-ish” to feel lonely. It’s a biological imperative. Your body feels pain when you are lonely.
You’re supposed to feel lonely when you are feeling isolated.
Best case scenario: a person uses the pain of loneliness as feedback to inspire them to move to connection. But how? What does it look like? With so many of us not feeling meaningfully connected, I decided I wanted to do something about it.
So I created The Loneliness Course:
The course is available online. As with most things, it is ready but with further tweaks and additions endlessly needed. But I’m ready to have people start interacting with it. I’m looking for feedback. And you’re invited in as a special friend of Wired for Connection.
It’s not a quick “mini” course that you can do in an evening. Moving from lonely to connected doesn’t work quick.
This is not a “eat this soup and lose 10 pounds in a week” equivalent. You know that doesn’t work and I respect lonely people too much to suggest a quick fix.
If it a quick fix was that easy, a lonely person would have already done it.
It requires real learning: understanding yourself and the world. Knowing how your brain works in loneliness. Knowing what is required to swim upstream in our isolating culture like a salmon going home to spawn. It’s hard work, but instinctively, once you start this effort, it makes sense.
I’m inviting 20 people to register for The Loneliness Course as a “soft launch”. Get in early and kick the tires. Experience it and tell me what you think. If you love it, let me know so I have some testimonials to use to let other people trust it enough to enroll! Let me know what you might find useful as I look to continually improve it.
Use coupon code: WFC80off at the checkout for 80% off. This is a limited time offer for early onboarders. Let someone in your life that you care about know about this course and this special offer.
The course will be offered at $187 USD to those who choose to enroll. That’s a chunk of change, for sure, but likely half of what most courses of its type would cost. I want to make it widely available. The best part? You can get in on the ground level with WFC80off.
5 modules with several videos each to:
- Understand loneliness and connection and their impacts more fully
- Discover the science of the brain in loneliness
- Learn skills to understand and relate more effectively with yourself to set yourself up for better relationships
- Understand the complexity of a screen based world and how our culture creates a polluted pond that them blames the fish for being sick
- Be inspired by UBUNTU, a term unfamiliar to many, that defined as best as our English allows us as: “I am because you are”. UBUNTU is also the acronym of strategies that are provided to move the student from loneliness to connection.
I’ll be on vacation August 27-September 18, in the continent of UBUNTU–Africa! If you have questions, email me at contact@carolynklassen.com and I’ll try to get to them. I welcome feedback and comments via email as well!
Join us at The Loneliness Course.