Lonely and Alone. These are two completely different things yet they often get confused with one another.

Lonely can be a state of depression and can come about when we need others to make us feel complete and validate our worth. We can get depressed if we feel we are not being included and often will conjure up unjustified ideas of why or how we are being mistreated by being left out.

Being alone can be serene. It can be a time we use to break away from the noise and look inward. Where we reflect on the present moment and level set. Where we practice self-love and put ourselves top of minds over others.

The bridge getting us from being lonely to loving being alone is paved with a lot of heartaches. There are a lot of self-limiting beliefs and childhood ideals that we often have to acknowledge and overcome. If we are willing to do the work of self-reflection we’ll find we get to a place where we are comfortable being alone and start to seek these moments out more frequently.

They become happy places for us where they used to cause pain.

They become our getaway from a noisy and frantic world.

They become an island we want to visit more often.