I had an interesting experience the other night.

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Something I didn't expect.

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It caught me off guard.

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And it took some time for me to reflect on it and see the real lesson.

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I went to see a friend of mine who is a masseuse.

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Periodically I see him to get a massage.

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It is one of my forms of self-care.

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At the end of the massage, which was wonderful, he said he could keep going.

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Normally, I would accept and just lay on the table longer and let him work on me.

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Somehow, this time it didn't feel right.

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I was feeling good, and there didn't seem to be an area on my body that was calling for more attention.

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He then encouraged me to hang out for a while, which I did, but not for too long.

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After I left I pondered on why I didn't stay longer.

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My wife was away, and I really didn't have anything to go home to.

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I was hoping to meet a friend afterward, but she was tired and didn't feel like getting together.

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So why did I leave?

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Often, I feel like I want more connection with people.

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In this virtual world, I get tired of seeing people in little boxes and really want to be in person to connect.

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Yet that night I didn't.

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It took some time for me to recognize what was going on inside of me.

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There was something about his encouragement to stay that just didn't feel right for me.

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Or perhaps I should say it felt uncomfortable.

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Then it came to me.

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What I was feeling was his loneliness.

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There are lots of times I feel lonely, so why was this so uncomfortable?

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And that's when I got the big 'Aha!'

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The feeling of loneliness I felt from him touched upon my own loneliness.

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It felt uncomfortable for me to see my own feeling reflected back to me.

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So as much as I would have loved to stayed longer, I didn't.

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Somehow, being by myself felt better than being with someone else who was also feeling lonely.

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Isn't that funny!

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It makes me wonder, how many people out there are lonely, walking around bumping into other lonely people, and not connecting with each other?

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Wouldn't it make sense to just connect with who is around you to alleviate that feeling of loneliness?

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People are funny, and I guess so am I.

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Have you ever felt lonely when you were with someone else who felt lonely too?

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~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant

Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour