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Hi, I’m Rebecca Fry and I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor at Thriveworks. I was just popping on to say, are you lonely yet?

In the light of this COVID-19 scare, a lot of us have been told to isolate, to withdraw, to retreat to our homes and rightly so. It’s the best thing that we can do to combat this disease and to follow the CDC guidelines and to be a responsible citizen for those around us who may be more compromised, but it sure isn’t fun.

I personally miss the way that we could spontaneously run into each other on the street or maybe greeting a neighbor at this grocery store or finding a way to laugh with someone who lives down the street. Right? That sort of spontaneous, creative part of our humanity has been pretty much stripped from us for a little bit of time. And so now every interaction that we need to have in our culture has to be intentional.

And while that’s fine for extroverts or people who are very comfortable putting themselves out there, I can leave other people feeling a little bit stranded and a little bit lost. And a little bit confused as to how to proceed with staying connected to the other people around us.

There’s no doubt that all of us needs genuine human connection in order to do well. But when we have to put such effort into communicating, it can be very tiring for some people, especially people who might classify themselves as introverts, people who for whom going out and spontaneously communicating can be very tiring.

And so I would question or caution you that now is the time to be intentional about your communication. So if you’re feeling a little bit lonely, maybe it’s time to call up that family member you haven’t talked to in a while. Maybe it’s time to look up that neighbor who goes to school with your daughter or son. Maybe it’s time to make a zoom meeting with some friends. Maybe it’s time to send a text or a love package to someone, whatever it is, right?

We’re all finding creative and interesting new ways to connect with one another. And I would encourage you that being intentional in this time of crisis will make you feel nourished. It will make you feel connected to others in a way that you haven’t in a few weeks maybe. And it will help you to understand and know that we are all together and we are not alone.

So, because we all need human connection and we’re not trying to live like monks necessarily, I would encourage you all to just go out there and find a creative way to connect with the people you love.