It’s about to be February 14 and most of your friends have their partners to spend their time with that day. How about you? Many people are actually designating this day as exclusive for couples. Financially speaking, it also makes a multi-billion industry worldwide.
It is not uncommon that also a chunk of people celebrate this event alone but it does not follow they are also lonely. Longing for a significant other is one thing but it should not destroy your self-image if you are still single up to this day.
Does this image ring a familiar bell to you? Did it hit too close to home?
The pragmatic picture was drawn by Mexico-based artist Idalia Candelas. With her artwork named Postmodern Loneliness, she draw these using ink, pencil and watercolor. Candelas also published her drawings in a booklet called Alone. These pictures were inspired by her time living in Mexico in solitude.
Candelas mentioned that loneliness is a recurring theme in her work. She added that this feeling is increasingly becoming more common today despite our best efforts to avoid it.
However, Candelas also said that loneliness should not fool you. Living alone and loneliness are not the end all for things. In fact, spending time in solidarity is not a bad thing.
She likes to show women who live alone but are not lonely. There are women who are not crying nor depressed. Instead, they are enjoying in the company of living only by oneself.
We used to think being alone paints a sad picture in our lives. It has brought a bleak stigma with some researches supported that this state can actually cause death. That is primarily because humans are perceived as social animals. Yet there is now a growing number of people who are actually happy spending time with themselves. In fact, there are also studies which justify that fact.
There is an Australian study conducted last year that going places by oneself often results in personal feeling of discovery, freedom and relaxation. Other studies linked living in solitude to other good effects such as clearing one’s mind and a means to fight depression.
Hence, you should not fret if you are really alone in Valentine’s Day. That is just another day on the calendar which will eventually pass. Do something productive at home. If you don’t want to, you can always rely in your bed to lie on with your pillow while you watch some gory movies. Bring your positive attitude that day!
If these drawings are indications of Candela’s daily life, that would be a very relaxing one.
