How to Overcome Loneliness
For many people, one issue that makes them afraid to lie flat is social connection.
I. Loneliness Cannot Be Resolved Through Socializing
When it comes to socializing, first look at your own inner core: is it mature, grounded, and full of light? People whose inner core is immature and clouded by ignorance can only attract others with similarly immature inner cores. Their unresolved issues become entangled. This only deepens loneliness. Entering a romantic relationship out of loneliness will only leave you lonelier and exact a greater price.
II. Loneliness Is a Question of Existential Philosophy
“My Marx + Zhuangzi + Psychology Framework: An Overview” is grounded in a “sense of connection,” drawing on Marx, Zhuangzi, and psychology to connect oneself (consciousness and the ego)—one’s inner core (libido and innate wholeness)—nature—other people—working people at the bottom of society—society—history—the world—the universe.
That profound sense of connection is what Zhuangzi describes in “The Equalization of Things”: the feeling of oneness between humanity and nature. Great illumination, freedom from self and fixed forms, and tranquility in one’s primal self. Then you will not feel lonely.
Only by drawing on Marx and Zhuangzi to reexamine your worldview, outlook on life, and values, and to heal your inner core, can you truly attract kindred spirits who resonate with you at a high frequency. “Zhuangzi: Benefiting Others Through Stillness”
III. More Specifically:
- Connect with yourself, understand yourself, be yourself, and love yourself. See the earlier article “How Ordinary People Can Experience Innate Wholeness.”
- Connect with the present; practice living in the present. “Presence and Being at Ease Are the Answer to Existential Crisis”
- Connect with others. “Choosing Whom to Socialize With” and “Socializing: The Differences Between Comrades, Kindred Spirits, Close Friends, and Friends”
- Connect with ordinary people: “How Ordinary People Can Connect with the Simple, Genuine Goodness and Beauty of Working People at the Bottom of Society,” “The Order and Civility I Saw at a County-Town Stadium,” “Chinese Internet Users and the Chinese People Are Different Groups and Classes,” “Petty-Bourgeois Malaise,” and “The Small-Town Test-Taker Malaise”
- Connect with nature: “Zhuangzi and Nature Heal Existential Crisis,” “Looking Back on My Journey of Leaving and Returning to Nature at 35,” and “Zhuangzi’s ‘Perfect Happiness’: Watching Clouds at Dusk, Returning Home with My Child in My Arms”
- Connect with society and history: “Most Personal Problems Are Problems of Society and Humanity” and “Striving Is a False Concept.” It is important to see heaven and earth and to see all living beings. Seeing that everyone suffers can help you step outside your ego and feel more compassion for yourself as well. “Gratitude for My Past Self, Gratitude for My Present Self” and “Online Group Therapy: An Online Gathering for Ordinary People and Workers to Share Their Suffering”
- Connect with history: “It Is Not Hard to Calmly Accept Your Own Failures—and to Calmly Accept a Historical Low Point,” “Marx + Zhuangzi: Marxism from the Bottom Up,” and “From a Small-Town Test-Taker in an Impoverished Village to a Member of Beijing’s Elite: Is This Defying Heaven and Changing One’s Fate?” Connect with the great figures and people of integrity and conviction in the history of Marxism. “Marx and Lenin: Stories of Good People”
- Connect with the universe: “We Are Children of the Universe” and “Zhuangzi: I Will Die an Ordinary Death”