---
title: "The Loneliness Pandemic: Learning to Feel Good and Happy Again"
description: "Loneliness doesn’t always look like solitude. It can exist in a room full of people, in a marriage that’s grown distant, or in a life that looks perfectly curated from the outside. As a woman, you often become a master at nurturing loved ones: partners, children, ageing parents, pets but when the time comes to nurture yourself, you may find your emotional landscape barren and cold. Dr Marina Nani looks into the reason loneliness intensifies after 50 is how society rarely prepares you for reinven"
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2025-10-21T17:24:50.000Z
updated: 2026-02-26T15:52:01.642Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/the-loneliness-pandemic-learning-to-feel-good-and-happy-again
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/58b01ed6-2a2c-4e9c-a3b4-2c813f57e9d1.jpg
categories: Feeling Good and Happy
content_type: Opinion
region: Global
publication: Rich Woman Magazine
---

When a child leaves home, you don’t expect the silence to be so loud.
For years, your home was a living, growing organism, doors slamming, laughter echoing, endless conversations about homework, whispers about heartbreaks and hopes and, of course, what to have for dinner. Then, one morning, it all stops. The chairs stay tucked in. The floor stay clean. No crumbles to clean. No one to call you while you are in the middle of everything: Mom!

People talk about the [empty nest syndrome](https://richwoman.co/article/the-estrangement-conversation-what-no-one-tells-you-when-your-adult-child-doesn-t-need-you-in) when the children leave. I heard my friends saying: Don’t worry. *You’ll have time for yourself now.* But what no one tells you is that you may not remember who that ‘self ‘ is actually.

I had been a mother for so long that I’d forgotten the woman who existed before, the one who used to [learn](https://richwoman.co/article/the-power-of-words-the-science-behind-and-the-cultures-that-created-them). Before my children were born, books and words were my world. I read and wrote about everything: natural beauty, relationships, soul, love, injustice, the pulse of life in tiny corners. Then motherhood arrived and writing, like sleep and reflection, became a luxury I couldn’t afford. My words didn’t vanish; they went underground, buried beneath early morning mini- marathons, school schedules, doctor’s appointments and the endless emotional labour of holding a family together.

When the nest emptied, those words came back. Not gracefully, like a sweet memory, more like a storm. The loneliness cracked something open and out of it poured questions I’d been suppressing for decades. At first, I resisted them. I filled my days with chores and errands, trying to outrun the ache. But the ache had things to say. And when, finally, illness slowed me down, really slowed me down, I heard them.

### The Hard Truth About Loneliness

Loneliness after fifty isn’t just about being alone. It’s about coming face-to-face with the parts of yourself you left behind while raising your loved ones. The version of you that dreamed long into daylight, that created without doubt, that laughed for no reason.

When the noise of family life fades, you begin to ask questions you didn’t have time to ask before: *What do I actually want? What brings me joy? *[*What makes me feel alive?* ](https://mixam.co.uk/print-on-demand/67474bbcb9ec340c41fcf2c1)These questions are terrifying at first. But they are also sacred glimpses of hope, like lightning piecing the dark sky. They can lead you home.

The first thing I did was stop pretending I was fine. I stopped filling every quiet moment with distractions. Instead, I listened to the sound of rain, to the birds singing, to my own heartbeat. I realised I had been living on autopilot for years, doing everything more efficiently than yesterday, while adding more items to my to do list, without asking myself: could be more than this? Where is my to be list?

Slowing down was uncomfortable. It meant noticing how exhausted I was and how the void was growing. But once I stopped the autopilot button and [remember to breathe](https://richwoman.co/article/9-signs-you-live-on-autopilot-how-to-stop-drifting-and-mind-wandering), something inside me started to wake up.

### Rediscovering the Forgotten Self

One afternoon I decided to start [decluttering](https://richwoman.co/article/best-decluttering-tips-to-clean-your-home-038-boost-your-mood) and I found an old notebook in an old box, my old handwriting running over yellowed pages that once were white. It was a story I’d started before my first child was born. I sat on the floor and read it, tears blurring the blue ink. It wasn’t just the story that moved me; it was the woman who had written it. She was still in there, hopeful, alive, creative. Like an old friend. She’d just been waiting. So, I started writing again. Not expecting anyone to read. Just to feel alive again.

And as I wrote, I began to [feel good again](https://richwoman.co/article/why-the-kindest-women-often-have-a-small-circle-of-friends-how-to-keep-yourself-safe-from-spr), not the “I’m fine” kind of good, but a grounded, quiet contentment. I rediscovered my enthusiasm. I started to see again beauty in small things, the morning light on the kitchen table, the rhythm of my own breathing, the way the world carries on even when we are uncertain.

### Byond Your Roles, Routines and Responsibilities

When you reconnect with yourself, connection with others follows naturally. I began meeting people who shared that same need for self-actualisation, women who would start with small talk while seeking meaningful conversation. We talked about purpose, about rediscovery, about the strange, beautiful space between motherhood and whatever comes next. Through these connections, I realised something profound: loneliness isn’t an enemy. It’s an invitation, a huge gate opening. It’s life whispering: *Welcome back. What took you so long?*

Loneliness doesn’t just come from being alone but from being disconnected from your essence. There are so many women, who just like me, have spent years on autopilot, caring for loved ones, keeping households running, making sacrifices, balancing expectations and holding the emotional weight of your family’s happiness. In the process, your own needs, creativity and enthusiasm often drift quietly into the background.

When that cycle pauses, it can feel like [losing a part of yourself](https://richwoman.co/article/finding-poetry-in-survival-how-to-built-a-life-and-a-home-at-alaska-s-edge). But what if loneliness isn’t an ending, but a gentle invitation to rediscover who you really are, beyond the roles, routines and responsibilities? The path forward begins with a shift from doing to *being*. It took me a very long time to trade my to do list for my to be list. It came down to a few very simple steps.

#### 1. **Slowing Down and Switching Off the Autopilot**

Most of us have lived decades guided by a sense of absolute urgency and obligation. As if we walk around holding a fire extinguisher in our arms. Loneliness can be your signal to pause. Slow down. Breathe. Observe the small details—the light in the morning, the scent of your coffee, the sound of your own heartbeat. This slowing down helps you reconnect with your natural rhythm, where peace and creativity live.

#### 2. **Listening Instead of Speaking**

Listening—truly listening—is an act of love. Start with yourself. Sit in silence and notice what your heart whispers when the world goes mad. Then extend that same stillness to others. Listening opens space for genuine connection. It draws people to you not because you have all the answers, but because you make them feel seen.

#### 3. **Discovering Your Talent**

Every woman carries within her a spark that may have gone unnoticed or forgotten. Maybe it’s painting, writing, gardening, mentoring, or something entirely new. [Give yourself permission](https://richwoman.co/article/when-having-it-all-feels-hollow-how-ashly-balza-calls-women-back-to-themselves) to explore, to experiment, to rediscover your innate talent, something that comes easy and you never get tired of it. When you activate your natural gifts, loneliness begins to fade as purpose fills the space it once occupied.

#### 4. **Allowing Yourself What Brings You Joy**

Joy isn’t something to chase but something to notice. It can live in simple pleasures, a walk in nature, music that moves your soul, laughter shared over tea. Ask yourself daily: *What makes me feel good?* and *What lights me up?* Then do more of that. Joy restores vitality; it reminds your body and spirit that life still has colour, rhythm, and beauty.

#### 5. **Rediscovering the Power of Enthusiasm**

Enthusiasm is the language of the soul when it’s alive and awake. When you speak with enthusiasm, when you wake with it, when you share it—it becomes magnetic. Others feel it. You attract people not through effort, but through energy. Begin your mornings with curiosity and wonder and your days will naturally fill with joy.

### A New Chapter of Self-Actualisation

Women over 50 are entering one of the most creative, powerful and freeing stages of life. Far from being a time of loss, this is a time of transformation. The loneliness pandemic, for all its pain, can become a portal to self-discovery. [Slowing down, listening to yourself](https://richwoman.co/article/why-cultivating-alignment-instead-of-chasing-after-happiness-helps-your-wellbeing-and-relatio) and returning to what feels joyful and authentic, you can build richer relationships with total strangers, and what I really mean, the person you never had time for. Yourself.

When rediscovering your talent, you start nurturing your enthusiasm and give yourself permission to simply *be*. You’ll find that loneliness transforms into a healthy solitude filled with light, peace and purpose.

Feeling good is giving you a new perspective on joy, as you learn to [listen more than you speak](https://richwoman.co/article/feeling-good-and-happy-releasing-the-old-with-cloud-dance-in-2026) and begin to attract life rather than chase it. And that’s when connection flows easily, naturally, and beautifully again. The secret is it not to run from loneliness but to listen to what it is asking for: *a return to yourself.*

Writing brought me full circle. What I once thought was gone forever had simply been waiting for space to return. My children left, but in their absence, I met myself again, a woman who enjoys listening to the silence, creates instead of consuming and lives with  enthusiasm instead of exhaustion.

The loneliness pandemic may be global, but for women like me, it’s also deeply personal. It’s the space where you finally get to breathe, to rediscover what makes you happy, to follow curiosity instead of validation. You don’t need to be afraid of the unknown. You just need to stop running from it. I am now, something I never imagined possible: a [digital nomad](https://richwoman.co/article/no-contact-a-new-narrative-is-the-doormat-mom-letting-go-or-going-viral). I discovered that sharing my story, the story I didn’t even know I have, is changing my story.

My research on feeling good and happy lead me to longevity, which took me back to Okinawa. While in Japan I also went to a Kintsugi workshop. I realised that mending the pieces of my life with joy, my own powdered gold, made my life more beautiful than ever before. Somewhere inside that silence that once felt unbearable, there’s a voice you have been waiting your whole life to hear. Your own.

If you’ve ever looked around a quiet house and wondered where *you* went in all the noise and nurturing, I want you to know you’re not alone. I spent years caring for others and silencing parts of myself that once felt alive. When my children left, I finally had to listen to that silence and it led me back to the woman I used to be, the one who loved to learn.

Now, every day, I try to slow down, listen more than I speak and find joy in small, ordinary things. Writing has become my way of feeling connected again, linked to life, to total strangers, including myself. If you’re standing in that in-between space, unsure what comes next, trust that it’s not an ending. It’s the start of something waiting just beneath the noise.
