1. Get active – do some light exercise, whether it’s tending your garden, using the stairs more regularly or joining a walking group.
  2. Get involved – take steps to become more engaged in your local community by visiting a lunch club or volunteering at a local scheme.
  3. Remember being alone is not the same as being lonely. Loneliness is a feeling, not a fact which passes.
  4. Comfort yourself – feeling lonely is sometimes a normal reaction to being human. Rather than dwell on the feeling, keep busy by going for a stroll, consider getting a pet to take for regular walks, telephone a friend, read a book, meditate, take a bubble bath, going to the gym.
  5. Connect with others – even if this is having a conversation with staff at the local shop.
  6. Plan ahead by making plans to meet with a friend, watch a movie together, visit the shops, attend local fares, text friends you haven’t spoken to in a while.
  7. Do the DIY you have been putting off for a while and enjoy the benefits of your labour of love afterwards.
  8. Think – learn to enjoy your time alone – look out the window and daydream.
  9. Selection – the solution to loneliness is not quantity but quality of relationships. This means spending time with people who have things in common with you, in order to develop meaningful connections.
  10. Think about what it is that is making you lonely and write it down to understand more clearly what the actual problem is, to then discuss when/if you make a self referral to MyWellbeing College.