Life hands every single person a sense of loneliness at some point, but other people can do a lot to help out.<\/p>\n
In the United States, a 2014 survey by the National Science Foundation revealed that 1 in 4 of 1,500 people interviewed have no one with whom to talk about personal troubles or triumphs or to share confidences.<\/p>\n
People become lonely or blue for many reasons. Some are introverts and find social engagement difficult or feel they don’t fit in. Some are depressed after the death of a loved one, a divorce, loss of a parent or job or when children leave the nest. Some suffer from a disease or physical limitation that doesn’t allow leaving home; others may be abused by a spouse and fear outside relationships.<\/p>\n
Remember when people are lonely, they often long to share the things they love: That perfect rose bush, a fabulous soup, or a favorite book. So helping to relieve someone’s loneliness is often just being willing to share in their experiences.<\/p>\n
What can we do to add cheer to the world or even just a stranger who needs a lift?<\/p>\n
* Tell people when you value their work.
\n* Ask someone new to lunch.
\n* Visit a recently widowed neighbor.
\n* Take your talent on the road by dancing or singing at a senior facility, for example.
\n* Smile at store clerks, your restaurant waiter, and a seemingly unfriendly neighbor.
\n* Pocket your phone and never use it in public except for emergencies.
\n* Call someone, or visit. Go to dinner. Take time to admire the important things.
\n* Spend time talking and laughing or playing a board or card game.
\n* Ask what they need (a ride to the dentist or church, a grocery trip, or repair of a dripping faucet).
\n* Make this one day of cheering up one person an important part of your life. If you want something, give it sincerely to someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Life hands every single person a sense of loneliness at some point, but other people can do a lot to help out. In the United States, a 2014 survey by the National Science Foundation revealed that 1 in 4 of 1,500 people interviewed have no one with whom to talk about personal troubles or triumphs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insure-us.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}