 If you can do these three things, start from there, you will be able to build a connection with yourself. So how can you get connected to yourself? The easiest, fastest, and my most favorite way is put down your phone. Even if it's for an hour, even if it's for 10 minutes, wherever you are, put down your phone. And when you put down your phone, you're gonna notice so many thoughts, so many emotions, so many discomforts arising from your body. Notice all of those things. These things are not new. They've always been inside of you, but you just weren't aware of it because you were so distracted on Instagram and social media. So for example, next time you go to a restaurant, next time you go to a cafe, next time you go to the mall, next time you go to the gas station grocery store, put down your phone and be with yourself. Be with yourself as you push the car and go grocery shopping. Be with yourself as you pump the gas. Be with yourself as you eat your food. Notice what thoughts are coming up, what emotions you feel at that moment. Notice any physical discomforts. Oh, maybe my shoulder hurts. Oh, I feel pain in my hips. I feel pain in my lower back. Notice all of these things arising from within you when you are not distracted. And when you can notice these things, then you will be able to know yourself better. Know what physical pains you're carrying, know what emotional pains you're carrying and know what mental thoughts you are holding inside of you. And now you might be saying, Linda, but what if I don't want to know all the crazy thoughts that I have inside of myself? I'm so scared to see what's inside of myself. I get it. I understand. Especially if you have an inkling that you tend to have darker negative thoughts, it can be a very scary thing to look within yourself. So this is kind of a gross analogy, but bear with me because it will really stick. Looking into yourself when it's very painful versus not looking into yourself because this is more comfortable, the difference is like this. Let's say you have a clogged toilet in your house. Yes, disgusting. Clogged toilet in your house. And because it's clogged, it starts to overflow. You have two choices at that point. You can keep ignoring it or it's so disgusting and you don't want to deal with it and you want to plug your nose at, oh my God, like, ugh. You hate it, but if you fix it now, your house will be better off in the future. If you leave that clogged toilet because you're like, oh my God, it's disgusting. I don't want to deal with it. Maybe it'll fix itself. Ugh, just go, go, go away, go away, go away. If you keep doing that, will it get better on its own? If you just leave it as is, will it get better on its own? No, man, it's not going to get better. It's going to get worse. It's going to overflow. It's going to get onto your carpet. It's going to stink up your bathroom and then it's going to stink up your whole house and your whole house is going to be all rotten and moldy and disgusting and you're going to have to live in that shit, literally. And even though this sounds like a dramatic analogy, that's actually what we're doing to ourselves when we neglect the problems within. When we refuse to see the emotions that we have, when we refuse to see the thoughts, when we refuse to see the physical pain that we have, it's like letting your toilet overflow because you don't want to deal with it. I don't know about you, but I prefer putting on the gloves. So disgusting, but pulling my hair back, plugging my nose and cleaning that to prevent future mess. What about you? So I implore you, if you are feeling lonely at this moment, if you know anyone who is feeling lonely at this moment, recognize and see if you are disconnected with yourself. Honestly, there's no good or bad. There's no reason to judge yourself. There's no reason to criticize that you're disconnected. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone lives like this until they know better. We all do our best until we know better. If you're disconnected with yourself, put down your phone and be with you as you are, right in this moment. As you eat, as you walk, as you work, just be with your thoughts, be with your emotions, be with your body. And to put a little cherry on top, after putting down your phone, I encourage you to go out into nature. Going out into nature will refresh your energy. It will clear your mind. And a lot of the great thinkers, a lot of the great inventors, you know, recently I'm watching the Bill Gates documentary on Netflix that talks about his life. You know, all the great thinkers, the big, big people, they get their best ideas when they walk in nature. Even Bill Gates in that documentary on Netflix, he shares that he gets his best ideas when he walks through the forests in Seattle where he's at, when he walks to the forest, that's when he gets his ideas. That's when he clarifies the things that are going on in his mind. So like that, I encourage you, put down your devices, go out, take a walk in nature, connect with nature, feel nature, feel yourself within the nature. Even if you feel angry, even if you feel frustrated, that's okay. Just feel yourself and be as you are without the distractions. If you are experiencing loneliness, if you know someone who is experiencing loneliness, if you've experienced loneliness in the past, please go out there and share. Go out there and help others who are experiencing loneliness. I had such extreme loneliness in my past that I didn't know what to do with. I didn't know who to talk to. I didn't know what tools I had. I didn't know why I was feeling this way. Let's start the conversation and talk about it. It's okay, you are lonely. Don't be afraid. You are not alone. You can make it through. And it starts with first, realizing why we are lonely, which is the disconnection, realizing why we are lonely, where you are disconnected, and rebuilding those broken connections within you and outside of you. Put down your phones, go out into nature, sit with yourself. Three things, if you can do these three things, start from there, you will be able to build a connection with yourself because when you put down the distractions, you will know what you are feeling inside, what your heart is carrying, what your mind is carrying, and what your body is carrying. Building a relationship with yourself is no different from building a relationship with someone else, someone outside of you. When you wanna get to know someone, let's talk about dating. When you want to woo this person because you're interested in this person and you want their attention, you will literally stalk them on their social media, stalk their friends and to see and to find out what this person likes, right? And you will do things to resonate with them, like, oh, he likes hockey. Oh, you know what? I like hockey too, and you'll kind of express those things, right? So same thing. If you wanna get to know someone, you have to know what their hobbies are, you wanna know how old they are, you wanna know what they study, you wanna know what their job is, you wanna know so many things about them. It's that same kind of skill, same kind of desire to get to know someone outside of you, use that same technique to know yourself. Oh, hey, Linda, what are you feeling today? What is my heart feeling today? Oh, you know what? I have a little bit of tension in my right shoulder. I wonder where that is from. Things like this, use your skill of dating, use your skills of making friends to do that to yourself too. It's the same thing. It's not different. The same techniques for dating, building relationships with other people can be applied to you. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you build a strong, stable, loving connection with yourself.