A sense of community is important to combat loneliness, which is the focus of this year's World Day.
Read on for more ways to combat loneliness and exclusion.
A large group in society feels lonely. This is a challenge for public mental health, according to World Mental Health Day, which is marked on October 10 every year. Loneliness is hard on the individual, but it's also hard on society because it can lead to isolation, sick leave, apathy and exclusion that is not so easy to reverse.
But it is possible, and we can all do the little things for ourselves and others.
The website The world's best news writes about a surprising method for becoming less lonely - urban greenery. Research has shown that having access to nature around you can reduce feelings of loneliness. Seeing trees, the sky or hearing birds, even when you're alone, has a positive effect on reducing feelings of loneliness, according to the research cited in the article.
It is an important point that actual loneliness and perceived loneliness are two different things. When surrounded by nature, the perceived feeling of loneliness decreases. One reason for this could be:
Health Norway has several good pieces of advice against loneliness. One of them is to share positive experiences with others. If you have an interest or hobby, try to nurture it in a community with others. Try to create routines where you meet the same people time after time. This is how strangers can eventually become friends, they write on helsenorge.no.
At KOK, we find that people of all ages come closer together when they share time together in the sauna.
Friendships are born and togetherness sprouts around the steaming hot stove. It's an intimate space where you let your guard down and can be yourself.
A report from NORCE entitled Sammen mot utenforskap - Aktiv på dagtid (Together against exclusion - Active during the day) shows that meaningful social meeting places are important for building networks, feeling mastery and preventing exclusion. World Day adds that we need more arenas and occasions to meet across generations, cultures, personalities, opinions and experiences.
It helps to broaden our understanding of each other and is an important contribution to countering stigma, loneliness and exclusion.
KOK fully supports this message and wants to be just such an arena.
In the sauna, you are included in a warm bubble without demographic dividing lines. It doesn't matter where you're from, what your name is, what you do for a living, if you're married or single or if things are complicated! Sitting there, sweaty and red-faced, dreading dipping our bodies into the cold water, we're all in the same boat.
We need each other, you! Not just to survive as a species, or to dare to jump into the ocean, but our lives become richer when we let others into our hearts, dare to connect with people we don't know and open up to new perspectives.
When you finally jump into the sea, you will feel courage and mastery. And a dose of endorphins! In the company of others, it creates a unique community.
Photo: Guro Thobru
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