How To Cope Being Alone
#3. Know your worth.
A few years ago, while in college, I pitied myself because I felt like I didn’t have any friends, only a few. I would do things on my own and see that most of the people I know seem to have so much fun and having companions all the time. As an extrovert, this was a huge problem for me.
However, as time goes by, I began to learn how to cope with being alone. In fact, I have turned into an extrovert living in the world of introverts and enjoying it. Today, I began to enjoy being on my own more than I did when I am with a lot of people.
So here are the things that I do to enjoy my own company. I hope that this will help you if ever you feel alone or worried about being lonely:
1) Mute Your Social Media
This was the very first thing I did, call me selfish but it is fo the best. I became frustrated seeing Instastories of people I know hanging out and having fun together, out there somewhere.
The beauty of social media is that they have a setting to mute any posts or statuses of your ‘friends’. Facebook and Instagram have this, they made your feeds look less irritating. I say this because I am done feeling sorry for myself when my goal is to be happier and avoid comparing myself to others.
For me, I muted people whom I haven’t spoken to for years. I only followed people who I believe are very close to me and would once a while chat from time to time. After doing this, I realized that some people whom we used to talk to are just not our concern any longer unless they are down to want to meet us, leading to my next point…
2) No one really cares what you do
So your Instastories you posted every one hour? Yeah, no one really cared about it unless they want something from you or there is something amusing about it.
Unless they are the ones who cook it or for business purposes, food pictures annoy me the most. I just don’t understand what you want me to do about it. Should I cook it? Should I say great photography? What a delicious looking food? It’s clear that people are taking pictures for attention, it’s getting really annoying.
I tried doing these Instagram photos for a few days, and I land to the conclusion that no one cares, and I want to eat. Not taking pictures of food.
I only share pictures if I feel like it’s a funny picture, has value and meaning of it, and there is a story behind that picture. That way, not only I am sharing joy and information with others, but I am also not wasting my time doing something that I and other people don’t care about.
Over time, as I stopped sharing pictures and ‘purged’ a bunch of people, I find myself leaving the social media world. Now I use it to check on news and movie updates, something I really care about.
And speaking of something I really care about….
3) Stop impressing others
Know your worth, do what you want that interest you, and help you grow. If other people give you money, then, by all means, impress them. But in this case, they are not giving you money every time you take pictures on social media, so there’s no point.
I find the effort to impress others is a waste of time. Different people like different things and you will always be criticized for whatever you do no matter what good you tried doing. Even Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were criticized for their invention, it’s sad but it’s the world.
Impressing others is very similar to lying to the world, and lies can eventually be caught in the end. So there really is no point, it’s better to stay down to death and focus on ourselves. It sounds selfish, but that’s the only way for us to move forward.
I do what I do that satisfies me. If people don’t like what I do, I learned to ignore them and continue to do what I want. I was able to focus on what I want to do in my life and invest in myself instead of wasting time thinking about what people will think of me.
The result…
With these in mind, I was able to mind my own business and learn to enjoy my own company. Small talks don't excite me anymore and I appreciate having a smaller circle of friends even more now.
Even in this pandemic, most extroverts couldn’t stand staying at home, but I am able to enjoy staying at home. I like this work from home since I am able to have more time for myself as I work, it’s really enjoyable.
I used social media for business purposes and entertainment only. So opening the feed isn’t as depressing as it used to be and I don’t have the automatic reaction of comparing myself to others thanks to these three simple steps:
- Mute your social media.
- No one really cares what you do.
- Stop impressing others.
The key is to focus on yourself. Forget the noise out there, and just enjoy your own company. Don’t feel bad if you feel lonely, it’s actually a blessing that you are given more time to think about yourself to grow.
I hope you learn something here.