CONNECTION
How to feel connected
A shift from loneliness to connection will bring you back to yourself.
Superpowers used: tribe, selflessness, awe
Other superpowers may be used as well. View all powers to shift states here.
Stop Feeling Lonely
We crave connection. It's in our genes.
In fact, the greatest predictor of overall wellbeing and longevity is the strength of our social bonds. But even if we do have strong social bonds, we can still wake up feeling lonely.
Because we live in a digital world, more and more people are feeling lonely.
Many of our communications have shifted from personal to digital. Unfortunately, evolution moves much slower than technology and we still crave the intimate human connections our ancestors shared for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, it's only been about 15,000 years since we stopped living in tribes.
Or another way of looking at it, less than 1% of human existence has been spent living outside the tribal lifestyle.
In other words, we're wired to have very intimate connections, yet our society and culture reflect an impersonal one.
But just because society is a certain way doesn't mean we have to be a slave to it.
Humans are social creatures and the feeling of loneliness is a survival mechanism to encourage you to spend more time with tribe. Or find a mate.
It turns out, the top 5 loneliest countries happen to be not only some of the wealthiest countries, but most modern as well.
Whereas countries with lower rates of loneliness have more tribal lifestyles.
In the modern world, even when we have strong social bonds, loneliness creeps in often because our connections are digitized instead of being personal.
We seek intimacy because it's a necessary part of the human experience.
You can use several human superpowers to help you shift from loneliness to connection -- even if you don't have strong social bonds.