Deepak Chopra reveals how to fight loneliness

Washington: Deepak Chopra, the co-founder of the Chopra Foundation and author of ‘Super Brain’, has shown how to feel more fulfilled in life.

The state of loneliness can be crippling, and though majority of people don’t find themselves consumed by it, they do feel its effects as their inner worlds shrink and dry up. According to the 65-year-old Indian-born American physician, the only real answer to loneliness is to experience your own fullness, and only then can you be sure that you will not look inside one day to find holes, gaps, unanswered fears and a sense of lack. A few steps that enable an individual to become true to themselves have also been given, the Huffington Post reported. Step one is to have a vision that you devote time to every day – according to happiness experts, the best way to have a happy life is to have a happy day. Chopra has modified this a little bit and said that the best way to have a happy life is to have a happy day that looks forward to tomorrow as the future is something you build toward and the place where you build is inside yourself. Step two consists of putting yourself in a context for fulfilment – the solitary life is suitable for very few people and the vast majority prefer social connections. We all have them if yours are the kind that doesn’t fulfil you emotionally, the whole value of relationship is being missed. Proximity isn’t the same as bonding. There is a sliding scale for bonding, from least to most intimate, which is as follows: Relationships exist for the purpose of mutual fulfilment, but if they exist for other reasons like status, financial security, feeling wanted or meeting the social norm, it’s not the same as being true to yourself deep down and allowing intimacy to move into the region of the soul. Lastly, view your life as a process, a never-ending journey – as long as you live between the end points of birth and death, life is like a conveyor belt heading inexorably for a black tunnel. The only time that never ages is the present moment. Living in the moment has become a spiritual cliche, but it isn’t always a useful one. The now becomes eternal only when it is full, when your being is enough to sustain you, complete fullness is at hand and when just being here elicits bliss, you are timeless. ANI