The air is heavy today. Can you feel the wind touching your empty soul? Everything seems grey to you. You start building cities in your mind just so that you can live together with people. But soon you see, there are no people. Your paper towns are empty. Silence has become your best friend. Even when all of your friends left you, silence never did. You are lonely, my friend. 

Perhaps, you realized that before I even said a thing. No problem!  Listen, I mean read. Keep reading. I am not here to make your day worse. I want to make you feel better now. If you consider yourself lonely and want to get out of the bars of loneliness, you have to BELIEVE. Believe in the fact that you are not lonely at all. 

Belief or faith is a must when you want to achieve something in your life. If you can believe, you can achieve. You are not lonely. You have to put your faith in that. Instead of wondering about the people who don’t value you, think of all your loved ones. There are people out there who still love you. If you think your dear ones left you, always keep in mind that your lord has never left you. Change your mindset. Take a deep breath and engage yourself in deep thoughts. Search for answers within yourself. 

Well, if you found nothing there, let me help you to get things started. Try talking. Maybe you should go ahead and try to have a conversation with someone who inspires you.  A few motivational words can work magic. It’s not necessary to talk about how you can combat loneliness. Let’s ditch that topic here. Just have a casual chat. Bring up the things you love the most. Maybe it’s talking about food or your favorite TV show or how Bill Gates became a billionaire. Don’t have dry conversations. It makes things worse. Keep yourself engaged with someone. Interaction can help so much, you have no idea.

Perhaps, you are an introvert. Or someone who just won’t prefer having conversations at first. Well, it’s painful to say it’s more difficult for an introvert to open up than an extrovert or a person who loves chattering. But not impossible at all. You have other ways to be happy and kick loneliness out of your life.

If you are lonely, books can be your best friend. Try reading fiction. Dive into the world of imagination with Romeo and Juliet arguing about french fries. Or maybe something more practical (The following decision shall be yours. Thank you!) Grab a cup of coffee or tea if you’re a tea person. Or simply water if you’re none. Hop on a couch, turn upside down, and start reading it till you see the end of the argument regarding fries. Or the mature topic of your preference. 

 Not a book person? Okay, okay, we offer a variety of choices here for everyone. Ever tried cooking before? This is your sign! Go and grab a pan and a friend. A good friend is necessary here, not a good chef. Who needs those cookbooks when you have YouTube, right? Search for recipes. Try those two to three-ingredient recipes together at first. Then opt for a roasted turkey. Experiment with flavors. Make Gordan Ramsey your icon, and keep on trying. Fail, burn down whole chickens but DO NOT GIVE UP! 

Cooking, not your game? What about a good crime movie? Or a comedy movie that will make you laugh till your stomach hurts. A good movie with popcorn and a crazy group of friends can alone be enough to make your day. You can also ask your busy siblings to join and watch a horror film together. The more people, the more they scream, the more fun it will be!

How about traditional fishing. It’s hard to find a pond in the crowded city of Dhaka. But if you manage to engage yourself in this job, you can pass a lot of time. Plus, think about the fishes you can catch. If you lack a pond or an appropriate spot for fishing, invite a pal to go and head to the grocery shop to buy fish. Prepare your bathtub with water and let the fish swim in your tub. Arm yourselves with all the requirements and start fishing. WARNING: Do not involve commodes. If you don’t have a tub, this point was not meant for you. Sorry to waste your time. Please continue. 

Start doing plenty of artworks. Try painting with oil colors. (Not oil, please) If you don’t know who Bob Ross is, you perhaps are not aware of happy accidents. I request you to try at least one Bob Ross tutorial from his YouTube channel. Even a person who can’t paint will get unexpectedly good results. Trust me! Here’s a fun thing you can do with your friends, of course. Just listen to an audio of a painting tutorial and paint the picture without looking at it for once. Make your friends try it. And compare! This is such a fun activity to do. Especially if you are bored.

Start recycling trash around your house. DIY it! Grab that scissor and the pair of your old jeans. Make something out of it. Try all possible ways to involve your mind in work. Creative work can force your brain to think DIFFERENTLY. This will help you to distract yourself from all those negative thoughts.

Involve your brain. Test your analytical skills by solving riddles, puzzles, and various word games. These are the things you can do alone and enjoy. Don’t consider failure an antonym of success here. We are learning. Failure is our teacher here, not our enemy. 

Here comes the debate whether social media helps to escape loneliness or makes it worse. If you just keep scrolling when you’re sad and lonely, you’ll find yourself bored at one point. But if you are in a video chat with a bunch of guys, you’ll enjoy it. If you live away from your parents, call them. Spend time with them virtually. Not only will this make them happy, but also your bond will be strengthened. 

Now, here’s the main zest of everything I said today. You need people, and you need creativity. Man cannot live alone. Neither can he enjoy alone. Our tendency to reach people, know them, and share our thoughts, opinions, and feelings is what keeps us together. As long as we are not alone, everything is fine.  We just have to figure it out, take deep breaths and think. We are not alone 🙂