Ask HN: How to be alone?

I personally found my community at church. It is a physical activity/community that meets every week. While i haven't been completely alone I have had feelings of loneliness I think loneliness and meaningless go together. So when you find meaning in certain parts of your life it can help but actual human contact (friends or family, or community) is an aspect that we cant do without. Go to the latin mass :) if you want to experience something new

This is great. Also, as somebody going through this change for the second time, I'll add that things come in waves. Sometimes grief, sometimes loneliness, sometimes regret, etc. It'll swell and seem to last for forever, but then it'll pass almost without noticing. When you're in the worst of it remember it will ease up eventually.

Whenever I feel down I try to redirect those thoughts into some new thing that I can do now. Nothing is ever 100% negative. Find those positives, dig them up and display them.

I get through by getting into every single thing I couldn't do before. Just like when I turned 18, I went to every place I could find to get carded. Even a great relationship is work and compromises are made, and it's hard to find the time to do all the things.

This weekend I dug out my trip collection I wasn't allowed to display. I pulled out old photos and hangers that didn't make sense for our blended family but now it's just what I want. I bought some used golf clubs. I rearranged the whole house to suit me (and to fill in the empty parts).

I'd bet your dog never seen either the snow or the beach, so take a whole trip just to do it. Learn to play drums. Spend hours at a bookstore. During a bad breakup some years ago, I volunteered for a campaign and went knocking on doors. Not only did I not get shot but I made some friends, too.

Revel in this phase. Because this will also pass and you'll find something else eventually (if you want to). I'm trying to be the most single I can be to really appreciate this time and learn from it.

You know, looking back at my life so far I realize.. all of my best stories were from my single days.

+1 to running. If you run consistently, you'll learn to believe in your body as something that naturally improves if you train it well, and that belief will cross over to your mind and heart.

> Everything feels hollow now

I feel the same way sometimes (most times?)

> In many ways it feels like being imprisoned, except at least in prison there are other inmates to socialize with. "Solitary confinement with internet" is probably a better analogy.

To me this feels more like shouting in the void type of feeling at times. Like no matter what I say on this forum or that, the chances of real change from it stems unlikely :/

The world is in a depressing mood right now so I'd recommend to shut off news for some time if it troubles ya (genuine suggestion) and my friend, use a hackernews filter to block news related or AI related things as well. I suppose, just have some interesting cool facts that get shared on HN or something cool tech related! (I need to follow this...)

Another point, Just take things slow. Human mind desires intimacy and friendships and our brains are simply not designed for isolation for the most part. (I had written more part but it just felt like talking what I was feeling which was good to write personally but would've been hard for others to read and maybe get something nice out of so I have removed it now)

So what I am saying is:

1. have patience with yourself even if it feels hard, you are doing great by talking with us as I am telling you that you aren't alone in this struggle and I want you to please just do small steps towards just interacting with people in a more positive light. Maybe make the spirit as tomorrow's gonna be a brand new day :D

2. Use study-together Discord server (This is something that I personally used) or any place essentially where you can find people who are working when you are working and some of whom are relaxing when you are relaxing. This allows some talks in middle of just normal stuff. Maybe there can be a work-together community too I am not sure.

Anecdotally, I have found the idea being that this problem is within us. This is actually good because we can actually solve the problem (to some degree) and we have control. The freedom is also scary especially for someone like me who lacks discipline/patience at times but yeah.

Recently I had felt so alone in my head like completely alone sometime sort-of and then I had a marriage of my cousin and within just 3 days, I felt so connected. I danced so much that I lost track of my breath or even what's going on. I just danced :D, Perhaps there can be some event where you can just give every part of frustration into something external and feel happy as I did with my cousin's marriage? [Not that things are doing extremely better now but for short term, it was so absolutely good]

A lot of that joy came because like, I was myself and people appreciated me for it. Like even in hackernews or like whatever idk, I try to be myself but still feel short sometimes. Like the idea of greed even maybe of wanting more but I don't think that Internet or IRC can completely substitute but rather alleviate in the sense of making friends.

I am experimenting with some new things on the internet though. Anything which makes me feel passionate actually.

Another Idea I wish to say is that perhaps you are trying to replace the intimacy with Internet or Gaming or any hobby. That's completely okay and I have sort of done that but I have found some sort of same feelings as you lingering when I try to do that. I think they still linger and some feelings of acceptance , as harsh as it sounds feels like the stoic way to approach. These are your feelings tho and you are correct feeling them but just acknowledge them and try to co-operate with them and work with them and maybe you can figure something out. I am sure.

(I usually start these messages with saying I am 17 or something, but this time I'd rather end with saying it. So right now, I absolutely get the idea of high school sweetheart and so I imagine that and the situation that you are talking about 20 years later. That's almost my entire age, It's entirely true that its gonna take some time to adjust. It means that you cared, cared enough that you are bothered by its lack. You are human. Have patience sir and with the patience , try new things which make you feel alive. Not necessarily something risk taking but suppose even a good game of chess in real life with pieces moving and people watching makes one feel alive. Here's a hug and you aren't alone, I suppose everyone feels lonely online in some capacity. Connected yet disconnected. I am trying out some new yet old things on internet like sharing links) but that's not really the point to bring back some control but yeah. It's 3 Am and I have spent around an ~hour when I have a maths test tomorrow :)

I sort of believe that every generation has some loneliness when you think about it so I also think that there are people who are likely to give you perspectives and help you out who are far more knowledgable than me. I might have to go sleep now as I am unable to write anything which can be more useful for ya even though I have tried.

I wish you to have a nice day, sir

This sounds like grief and depression to me. You're struggling because you're still mentally filtering everything you do through another person who is no longer part of your life. You must learn to do things for you, not for someone else. You may find that some things you thought you enjoyed you actually were only doing for someone else. Likewise, you may discover that what you want do purely for yourself is different from what you might expect or predict.

Time will heal some of this naturally. But the #1 recommendation I would always make to anyone in this situation is to pursue exercise. Weightlifting, hiking, etc., generate rapidly compounding results across multiple dimensions of your life and also often generate some of the most authentic social experiences you can find as a 30+ year old adult.