We came across NotAlone365, whist we were slinking around the net and got very excited (we know we’re excitable, you’ll just have to pretend it’s a lovable trait).
This new project, and it’s very new, looks at the phenomenon that is loneliness and seeks to address it by offering a hugely innovative platform to do just that. Set up by a group of for now, anonymous individuals, the website is a platform for bringing together people who feel alone, whether through physical isolation or emotional quiet and offering them a space to connect and chat with others who feel alone or with individuals who are simply offering a listening ear and emotional support.
Initially starting out life as a twitter account, which was set up in the latter part of December 2011 to offer a friendly network for people who were alone during Christmas, NotAlone365 is now growing rapidly and now has just shy of 1,000 followers on Twitter, a social media website which allows people to chat to one another and ‘connect’. The banter is gentle and polite, people come together to share stories and humour and there is a very pleasant and human feel to the account.
The website offers other things, too. Inside Out is a page where you can go to write about anything you wish, from your feelings to your experiences and is essentially for people who don’t have blogs and don’t wish to set one up. You can send your piece in and it will get posted, either anonymously or with the author’s name. Defamation issues aside, which the site will have to manage just like all blogs who invite comments must, this could make for very insightful reading. Our favourite section is The Red Rag Room, where you can go and vent off steam about whatever’s got your goat! Table for 2 with NA365 is also cute, allowing singletons and others to post up recipes to share with the community and there’s even talk about having nutritionists feature interesting recipes and articles, too.
Like all truly social, social media sites, the invitation to engage and evolve the project is explicit. On their ideas and suggestions page, people are encouraged to write down what they would like to see on the site and offer their perspective on it so far.
In today’s world, being alone is often part of the condition of modern life, so a project like this is hugely timely and potentially invaluable and the importance this kind of platform could have for divorcing/ separating men and women is very significant. More often than not, separating spouses just need to talk to human beings without judgement or expectation and this very simple thing can make an enormous impact; it can quite literally lift the dark clouds inside someone’s soul and lift some of the weight off their shoulders. So, if you’re feeling a little down this evening or you want to feel a friendly buzz about you, why not head on over and see what all the fuss is about?
For some who have suffered enough this approach may be just what they are looking for:
http://www.headless.org/
Please note this is not spam and I have nothing to gain from this. Hope some of your readers may find solace here or at least begin the journey out of their suffering.
However tough life may be, suffering need not be and there is a way out chronic suffering that is available to everyone whatever their circumstance and it is closer, closer than anything could ever be – and yes a kind of death is involved – death of the ego..
That is the good news, the only thing required is a commitment to self-enquiry, whatever the method. The headless way is one such way that has worked for many, so simple, so direct and where you do not have to rely on anyone’s word but instead come to rely on your direct experience and in taking seriously your discoveries as you go along.
http://www.headless.org/
