Are you having conversations that matter?
In 2002 after my son Jonah was born, I sent an email out to a handful of friends from my prenatal yoga class and invited them to meet me at our local park on the following Wednesday. We sat on blankets under big oak trees nursing our newborns. I pulled out some inspirational self-care cards and attempted to ignite a conversation around how my brand new mama friends were “really” doing. It went nowhere. I left the gathering deflated, sad and feeling lonelier than I had in quite a while. I now know why.
“Loneliness is different from being ‘alone’: You can be lonely even surrounded by people. The feeling I’m talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share the truth of who we are.” Author Amy Tan
“Loneliness,” says Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions in his new book, “isn’t the physical absence of other people,—it’s the sense that you’re not sharing anything that matters with anyone else. If you have lots of people around you—perhaps even a husband or wife, or a family, or a busy workplace—but you don’t share anything that matters with them, then you’ll still be lonely.”
The good news is that the experience I had with the new mothers became a catalyst for the creation of our women’s self-renewal groups–rich, sacred, soulful, authentic gatherings that are now meeting in 10 countries around the globe and offer regular opportunities for women to be seen, heard, connect and belong. The bad news is, as a nation, we’re lonelier than ever.
Not only are our digital lives luring us into “empty connections” but we’re isolating in all kinds of ways. A complaint I regularly hear from working women when I lead stress management and resiliency workshops is, “I am so busy, I just don’t have time for girlfriends anymore. Our lunches, coffees and walks have become a thing of the past.”
Brigham Young University conducted an influential meta-analysis of scientific literature on loneliness and found that social isolation increases your risk of death by an astounding 30%; some estimates have it as high as 60%. To put it another way, loneliness might be a more significant health factor than obesity, smoking, exercise or nutrition. Many are saying loneliness may be the next big public health issues (pick up a copy of this month’s Psychology Today on loneliness and read my post Why We Need Each Other for more on this thread).
This week I challenge you to sit with the following three questions (and share this post with your friends/family):
- Which relationships, communities or groups in my life really feed me (i.e. I feel happier and more connected after these encounters)?
- Which relationships, communities or groups in my life leave me feeling isolated or lonely and am I willing to let these go?
- What is one thing I could do to take my current relationships to a deeper level and initiate more conversations that matter?
Last week I was in New York City. There were moments during my trip that I found myself swimming in a sea of people feeling incredibly lonely. I noticed this and made an effort to start connecting with my drivers. One particular encounter with a beautiful, soulful Lyft driver from Jamaica unfolded over an hour as we sat in traffic and discussed why so many people in the city seemed to be cranky. We laughed, shared about our families and birth order, and 20 blocks later, I bounced out of the car feeling alive and more connected–to myself and everyone around me. It doesn’t take much to make the shift-we just have to stay awake.
RE-CONNECT & REPLENISH WITH LIKE-MINDED WOMEN: 3 OPPORTUNITIES!
- I’ll be in the ancient California redwoods April 20-22 at 1440 Multiversity near Santa Cruz, CA for Embracing the Wild Unknown: Women’s Self-Renewal Retreat. This gorgeous new retreat center –nestled in the CA redwoods offers an easy 20 minute shuttle ride from the San Jose, CA airport. It features a healing spa, expansive forest trails, amazing CA cuisine, mind-body classes and more. This will be a rare, intimate retreat–a great chance to get personal support from me.
- Once a year I offer a Texas one-day self-renewal retreat on Mother’s Day weekend (but they sell out quickly!). We just announced our May 11 New Way of Being: Women’s Self-Renewal Retreat (check out our bring-a friend special which includes a Kendra Scott jewelry gift and reserve your spot today).
- Craving authentic community and want to find (or create) your tribe? Learn more about our global sisterhood of RTA-Certified Facilitators and empower/support women in your community! More here on how to become a RTA-Certified Facilitator ($100 off through 4/30) and join our inner circle.
Subscribe here to Live Inside Out, a weekly blog written by coach/author & stress management speaker Renée Peterson Trudeau. Passionate about helping men and women experience balance through the art/science of self-care, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, US News & World Report, Spirituality & Health and more. Thousands of women in ten countries are becoming RTA-Certified Facilitators and leading/joining self-renewal groups based on her award-winning self-care curriculum. She is the author of three books on life balance including the award-winning The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and 16-year-old son. More on her background here.
