Lonely - A state of mind.
Alone - A state of being.
Thoughts?
I do mostly agree with your definitions of those words. But in a way, both could also be considered a state of mind, especially if you are open to the spiritual/quantum world, then saying you are ‘alone’ is just a state of your thinking; Because you are never really technically alone if you believe in the spiritual/quantum world.
Well said in the description I agree
I don’t see how quantum mechanics has anything to do with this.
Alone can have more than one meaning: I’m alone in my apartment. There is no one else here. I’m traveling alone by train. I’m surrounded by people but none of the are accompanying me.
The more you delve into this, the more complicated it gets.
Is lonely the same as feeling alone? I’m not certain.
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
Is lonely the same as feeling alone?
I'd say that "loneliness" is the negative feeling (aka a sense of absence) of accompaniment, companionship, or "togetherness" with other(s). E.g. you can be alone without actually feeling alone.
Therefore, I'd say feeling alone is just a longer way of saying "lonely".
Now, if you want to get into pedantic/literary arguments, you could say that "feeling alone" is sensing the physical absence of others, while "loneliness" references the emotional response to real/perceived isolation....
Humans are troupe oriented primates.
And, viciously dichotomous by nature.
We need short periods of solitude for our personal dialogue, and mental health.
But too much solitude is terrible for us, no matter how much of an “independent loner” we wish we were.
There are reasons that solitary confinement is a torturous punishment.
@Bavaria also means you do everything alone. With no body help
Too much delving and thinking is the reason we often overlook what our own body/brain tells us. If you are in synch and listen to your body, it tells you when “hey dude, you really just need to get out and be around people.” That is being alone and your body’s alarm clock telling you that’s enough. Ignoring the alarm leads to loneliness.
Parsing the words or spending one’s time contemplating what the words mean is asking for a whole bushel of loneliness while being alone. Humans can f up the most basic of needs if left to their own thoughts too long.
OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH @CallMeMikey What an interesting thought!! @Babichev I always love your insight.... This is so triggering for some.
@CharlesThePoet and @FunCartel you guys are so reasonable with the practical aspects of these things......
For ME.... It isn't always as easy or as black and white. @littermate once said something about relationships/connections feeling like vitamin deficiencies and different people have something unique to offer each situation. MY struggle, which isn't necessarily shared by anyone else, is that I don't always KNOW what is missing. Learning to listen to my body and feelings and such is fairly new and it is an interesting tango to figure out WHAT exactly my body is trying to tell me sometimes. It creates an interesting cha cha though!!!
Not because its the perfect song.... but I love John Mayer's idea of being "Perfectly Lonely" It feels like a beautifully, free to be me kind of space. 😊
@Babichev
"I don’t see how quantum mechanics has anything to do with this."
They are only referring to QM as a different way of seeing things. That whole huge gray area we're explorating in both the understanding what we exist in as well as exploring self. It made perfect sense to me, but I'm weird. However, I would like @NicoSnuggs to comment on never being alone if you believe in the spiritual world and how that connects to QM because the way it's they put it, the spiritual world and QM are one in the same. When you mix science with an ideology, things tend to go South.
I agree.