The power of connection

Relationships shift and change as we walk through life, but maintaining friendships and making new connections is vital for our wellbeing.

- MELISSA DOYLE & NAIMA BROWN

One of the great mysteries of the modern age is that we have never been more interconnected. We’ve never had more access to information and to modes of immediate communication – and yet, we’ve never been lonelier. We are, some say, living through a loneliness epidemic. In the UK, it’s been predicted that more than two million people aged over 50 are expected to be experiencing loneliness by the year 2025. Half a million older people may not see or speak to anyone for up to six days a week, nearly 60 per cent of people aged 85 and over live alone, and two-fifths of older people admit that the TV is their primary company. This loneliness phenomenon is evident in many countries where social isolation and individualism have replaced the social connection and community which we are so deeply hard-wired to rely on.

But how you define ‘connection’ is very much up to you. Australian fashion designer Alannah Hill recently packed up her city life and moved to the country. “Preferring to spend time alone is healthy,” she maintains. Still, Alannah knows how incredibly important “a community of friends, children, relatives and like-minded people” is to a happier older life. “I spend my days putting my best foot forward and learning how to be alone. I’m mesmerised by the magic-hour light and astonished at how much I like gardening! But I still desire meaningful, intimate encounters – in fact, I crave them,” she says. “I have my son Edward, my 12-year-old dog Jack, a few friends, my sister, my boyfriend, and any stranger or handyman who surprises me. One kind neighbour even left a sponge cake, scones and a homebaked quiche on my porch.”

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