How to Minister to Others During Your Time of Loneliness

Take a step outside of your lonely world to help others.

Different life stages can result in loneliness for various reasons. A teenager with no siblings may feel lonely and a young college student adjusting to the first year of college may feel lonely. Similarly, a person living in a new city or an elderly person without friends and family nearby can also experience loneliness. Although some people feel a tendency to draw inward in response to loneliness, if you can minister to others during your time of loneliness, you may find that you not only help others but you help yourself, too.

Instructions

1. Check with the library to see if there are volunteering opportunities for people to read to children or to tutor students struggling with reading. Ask about volunteering at the library in other capacities, such as a book shelver, too. The library can be an excellent place to meet people and make friends.

2. Call local schools to see if there are volunteering opportunities to help students. Accept volunteering opportunities to read to children, tutor children and help teachers in the classrooms. Sometimes rewarding friendships occur between people of significantly different ages. You may make a special little friend who needs an older parent or grandparent figure in her life, helping you feel loved and needed.

3. Contact local agencies and find out if you can volunteer with programs to interact with people who need services. You may find a visiting service that needs volunteers to spend time with shut-ins. If you like to cook, you might be able to make and deliver food to people who need meals. You might be able to drive people to appointments. These contacts can help you meet people and spend time with people -- you may develop lasting connections that ease your loneliness while you help others.

4. Volunteer at your church or within your spiritual organization to help people in your faith. You may already know some of these people and performing volunteer service to help them can help you get to know them better.

5. Call local hospitals, nursing homes and homeless shelters to inquire about volunteer opportunities. Some organizations have volunteer personnel with positions and shifts similar to shift work that earns an income. Other organizations have less structured volunteer programs in which people can drop in to spend time with residents and clients. Try to find an organization that will allow you to spend time interacting with other people who may need kindness and friendship.

Tips & Warnings

• If the sadness from the loneliness does not lift even after you get involved in ministering to others, consult your physician to explore the possibility that you may be experiencing some degree of depression.

References

• Health Link Alberta; Facing Loneliness As You Get Older; January 2004
• Psych Central; Are You Lonely?; Mary Ellen Copeland

Resources

• Senior's Site; Dealing with Loneliness; Wm. J. Diehm
• Health Link Alberta; Facing Loneliness As You Get Older; January 2004
• Zanesville Times Recorder; Positive Impact: Woman and Dogs Visit Sick; Kathy Thompson; April 2011