2) Loneliness….. The Danger Zone.
This month I've chosen to address the often hidden threat of loneliness and its effects. It can strike whether you live alone or not. But someone experiencing loneliness and living in a remote rural environment can feel its encroachment more than most. Loneliness is an integral part of depression if it's not challenged. An obvious trigger is losing a wife, husband, partner or significant other. But it can also arrive as an uninvited state of mind. Our desire to share with others wanes as we decide no-one wants to hear us. We don't want to trouble them with our "stuff". This reduces our opportunities for connection with others. So we go about life feeling that we are insignificant and almost invisible which in turn triggers feelings of ineptitude and harsh self judgement. We can spiral into a self destruct mode. Our boundaries reduce making our world smaller with less opportunity for communication. It's the same punishing spiral that anxiety follows before in...