Well, this is common to a lot of people as we've been forced to adjust our lives and deal with the restrictions being imposed upon us during this pandemic. The added challenge is sometimes we even feel isolated when we have people right around us in our immediate space. These feelings of isolation don't necessarily always have to follow logic. The important thing is to recognize when you have them, there are some practical steps you can do to overcome them.

First step is to actually ask yourself if there's some productive action you can take. If you're in the place where you're fortunate enough to have people around you, but are still feeling isolated from them, maybe that's an opportunity to connect with them and share some of the way that you're feeling. Often, if people knew what was going on inside of you, it would actually enable them to reach out and offer you some support, and often, it's those initial connections when people offer us just a little bit of support or validation that you're not alone, that we can start to feel less isolated. Maybe those people actually share something with you about their feeling something similar, and you can then connect with them, and in that joining, the two of you or the three of you or the four of you can share the burden that's been placed on all of you during these times.

Some of us may not have people around us in our immediate environments that we can do that with. So we can turn to technology and maybe use devices and applications like Zoom and FaceTime and Skype to reach out and connect with people in our lives that we can't physically be around right now. While not perfect, these tools will at least enable us to connect in ways that can afford us opportunities to get support in that way.

And you may not have people that are so readily available even using technologies like Zoom or Skype or FaceTime. Fortunately, many of us have the telephone, and we can go old school for a while and connect with people by picking up the phone and making a call. Even sometimes we may not feel like it initially, and it's often the case that we don't feel like doing things before we do them, but after we do them, we feel better. So in those instances, it may be useful to put actions before feelings and do the things that we think may be helpful even if they don't feel helpful upfront.

And finally, some of us may be in the unfortunate position where we have relatively few people that we have even available to pick up the phone and call. In those instances, maybe we can join a greater cause and participate by connecting in something meaningful, like doing something charitable for others or joining a social cause or a political cause so that we feel empowered to make good in the world. Connecting with other people that share a similar value can often combat feelings of isolation and loneliness and make us feel good about ourselves. No one solution is perfect, but it's important to remember that you do have choices available to you.