Episode 3: Lonely

This week on The Living Experiment, we talk about Lonely — the experience and stigma of that feeling, and the negative impacts it has on our well-being. We explore some of the reasons more of us are feeling lonely these days, and how we can get out of the vicious cycles that keep us more isolated than we’d like. We also suggest some experiments that help you create more time, space and energy for social connections that support your own health and happiness.

Episode Highlights

• What is loneliness? Why do we get lonely? Dallas and Pilar share their thoughts (1:30)
• How loneliness affects our lives and overall health (6:35)
• Skin hunger (10:55)
• Using television as a social crutch (13:30)
• Recognizing loneliness and social withdrawal as a societal issue (15:00)
• Untangling the knot of loneliness (20:25)
• Social feeds as digital junk food — calories but no nutrients (24:30)
• Why face-to-face contact matters (35:50)
• Building the skills of assessing and alleviating your own loneliness (39:50)
• Experiments for the week (50:30)

This Week's Experiments

Dallas suggests: Make your phone invisible in your living space.

• Keep phones out of sight and silenced in the communal areas of your living space (living room, dining room, kitchen).
• Try using an app that tracks your phone usage to become more aware of how often you’re looking at the screen.

Pilar suggests: Examine your weekly schedule. Where are there windows of opportunities for real human interaction?

• Take a look at one week of your schedule and find the opportunities to have face-to-face connections with friends and family. Work events do not count for this experiment!
• Find 15 minutes a few times a week to make yourself available to connect with strangers, like by sitting in a coffee shop without a cell phone or computer.

Share the Love! 

Each week, we offer you a few life-shifting experiments to try on your own. We'd love to hear how they turn out, and what insights they provoke! Connect with The Living Experiment  on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and share your stories with us there. 

Resources 

• Read about Dallas’s cool new More Social Less Media program and his article on how to "Sit With Your Loneliness".
• Try using an app like Moment to track your cell phone usage throughout the day. 
• Check out Dan Buettner’s research on the Blue Zones, the places on earth where people live the longest. 
• Subscribe to our newsletter (so you can stay up to date with us and future episodes).
• Sponsor link: Check out Brian Johnson’s “Habits 101” Master Class for FREE.