When I was in grad school at Stanford, I was a member of the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA). Stanford’s campus is enormous, and grad students are notorious for spending loads of time sequestered in a lab somewhere on campus. Many of us were new grad student life and were feeling disconnected and lonely.
One member of BGSA started “Lunch @ the CoHo” every Wednesday at noon which meant that members of BGSA knew that they would always see friendly faces and be able to catch up with other BGSA members at least once a week in the Coffee House (aka CoHo) on campus. It was an informal gathering and everyone brought or bought their own lunch, but simply setting a time and place to meet once a week made it easy for people to find each other. Having a set time/place also meant minimal overhead for planning.
Try this with your co-workers, friends, or family members. Create a weekly meeting for a social activity at a set time. With your co-workers, you could create a weekly lunch, coffee break, or happy hour on Zoom for 30 minutes once a week. Everyone is in their own space with their own drinks and food, but it provides a set time every week to connect socially. You could also do something similar with your friends and family.
Make an effort and commit to engaging socially with your friends, family, and co-workers. It will combat feelings of isolation and disconnectedness.
Waving from my window,
Jeralyn