You're surrounded by people. Your calendar is packed. Your life feels full. And yet, something is missing—a subtle, quiet ache that creeps up unannounced. The nagging flatness that hums beneath the surface while you smile through interactions and wonder why connection feels detached.

If you recognize this, you're not alone, alhough that's precisely the problem: feeling alone while surrounded by people.

As a child, my father would often share one of his favorite quotes: "The difference between loneliness and solitude is your perception of who you're alone with and who made the choice."

I've turned those words over for decades. Solitude is chosen, the quiet you seek to restore yourself, to listen inward. Loneliness is the ache of disconnection without purpose. It's having a thousand connections and yet no one you'd call in a crisis.

Fifty percent of CEOs report feeling lonely, and 61 percent recognize how loneliness hinders their performance. One in five Americans overall feel lonely daily, which some research suggests may carry equivalent health consequences as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

But most of us won't name it. Are we so conditioned to believe that strength equates to independence that loneliness feels like failure? Somewhere along the way, we swallowed the lump in our throat at the conference table and learned that honesty about our inner world was a liability.

So we keep moving. We keep shallowing.

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