Coping with Loneliness

As someone who recently had pretty intensive surgery, recovering has definitely been one of the loneliest times of my life. I am someone who is very on the go. I take a heavy coarse load at school, work in the classroom, and then go and coach gymnastics at night. I love to be involved in intramural sports and try my best to make time for my friends.

Once I got my surgery all of that changed. I had to stop doing school for my J term, stop working, stop driving, and stay at home. For the first part a lot of my family was here for Christmas but deep down I still felt so alone. Because to me I was the only one going through what I was going through. I have been so thankful for my boyfriend and other friends who visit me but seeing everyone leave and go back to their normal lives and to just sit at home was and still is pretty demoralizing.

I don’t have the go-to answer on how to make loneliness go away but I have picked up some ways to help cope with it other than just sitting in bed scrolling on instagram and watching shows.

Something that has really been impactful for me was getting a planner and writing attainable goals for each day. Things like: Read 20 pages of your book, paint for 30 minuets, do your PT exercises. There are still days when it’s hard to find the motivation when all you are doing is simple tasks and it is important to mourn and feel those feelings. While also writing out goals and hobbies you want to pick up not only for the season you are in right now but also for later down the road.

The last thing that has helped me to get through, is knowing and praying that God will restore me as a person and restore my friendships and the areas of my life that are lacking. Like in the story of Ruth, God restore Naomi AND Ruth and rewarded them for their faithfulness to Him even when they felt like they Lost everything.