Satisfying Relationships is truly about staying connected to the people we value, respect, and desire, while staying away from the negative impact of social isolation. Social isolation can mean sequestering our souls from ourselves, detaching from those we love and respect, and from the familiarity of our known society. From the time we are born, we need others to survive and flourish. The tendency to isolate ourselves is typically tied to prolonged periods of intense emotional pain left unattended, misunderstood, and with no one to turn to in difficult times. We learn to self-comfort through auto-regulation, which often leads to destructive behaviors of self-soothing, reckless sexual behavior, substance abuse, etc. These behavior patterns remove any possibility of experiencing satisfying relationships because isolation breeds neurosis, and, isolation is a zero-sum game.
We all have choices to make and isolating from others is a choice that can be managed. When you think, “I want to sleep more than usual,” “No one knows what I’m doing,” “No one cares,” or “I’m not hurting myself,” you’re living in isolation. These distorted thoughts often thicken the walls of denial and increase the desire to further isolate from others. If we are to avoid the pitfalls of isolation, we must stay connected to those we love, trust, and respect. Satisfying Relationships can easily eliminate depression and isolation tendencies. Enjoying time spent with those we value, and with those who value us, is about owning our reality. Expressing your thoughts and needs bespeaks mental health.
Start today by expressing your thoughts, feelings, and concerns to others in a moderate fashion, neither overly emotional nor emotionally cut off. Staying connected may not be easy for some, so pay attention to how much time you spend alone. In isolation you aren’t interacting with a real person, it can be a twisted paradox, the more you seek to make everything right, the less right it becomes.