Coping with Feelings of Isolation

(light upbeat music) Hi, it's Eve here. In today's conversation, we're going to be touching on some of the isolation and the loneliness that can arise when you are on this journey, whether it's you who's going through this, or perhaps you're supporting a partner who is. And I'm so happy to be joined again with Rosie, my dear friend and fellow meditation teacher, and Shula, who is one of our incredible mental health coaches. Hi guys, welcome back. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, me too. Thank you so much for having me. When you're on this journey, it feels all-consuming, and knowing that you have this goal, but it may not be happening in the way that you're wanting to, at the speed at which you want it to, it sort of feels sometimes that like life is passing you by. And so how do we manage that isolation that can arise? So I really leaned into therapy because I felt like I almost didn't want to burden anybody in my life with what I was going through, but I also felt like I really needed an outside perspective that would guide me and kind of take me through this process so that I didn't feel like, I don't know, they just wanted me to feel better. Because there's also this tendency of the people in your life that love you, they see you, feel bad, they wanna make it go away. Yeah, yeah. Right, 'cause it's uncomfortable to be with somebody that's in a really uncomfortable position, especially one that they can't fix, right? So it's really nice to have that outside perspective to kind of guide you through this process. The vulnerability piece is very real. I mean, whether it's a friend who's also going through something similar or support group, or even members here have come to me and talked to me about their struggles with fertility and feeling this isolation, and who do I talk to? And you know, it can feel like everybody else has it easier than you do, and why do I wanna burden them or bring this to them? But it's not a burden. And I understand that feeling, you know. Yeah, I think of something Dr. Kristin Neff, who's an amazing researcher, pioneer of self-compassion, and she talks about the three core pillars to self-compassion. First one is mindfulness. You know, part of this process, as painful as it can be at times, is that awareness of, okay, just because I think something, it doesn't mean that it's true. The second one is common humanity. This idea that even though it may feel like it's only happening to you, truly no, you are not alone. And then the final one is self-kindness. So like, how are you speaking to yourself? How are you treating yourself? And I know that doesn't immediately fix the isolation and it doesn't fix your immediate situation, but I think if we think about, especially the...