Lonely is a state of mind. Lonely is a feeling of a great (unwanted) distance between our emotional self and everyone else’s.
Physical distance (out of sight, out of mind) could play a role but it often doesn’t.

Healing it, then, involves decreasing that distance. We can do that by either moving our emotional self towards someone else’s or someone else’s towards ours. Yes, a combination works too.

Challenge, here, is that we’re not normally very well equipped to quantify and decide on the emotional direction. It’s mostly a byproduct of our physical actions and connections we make through them.

So, good news, there’s something we can do about this. But what?

Seek to understand, not judge. That elevates you. Elevating is a form of moving. Moving to a higher vantage point.

Seek to help, not critique. That moves them.

Through those two actions, we open channels of communication that change the landscape where our emotional selves are located. These channels are like tunnels, shortcuts, that either party can take to get closer.

A byproduct of those actions is the feeling we get for the others that helps us navigate the map and the tunnels.

The distance decreases.

Duckling is not lonely, it’s by itself.