UnLoneliness with Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH

July 20, 2015

Watch as The Foundation of Art & Healing Founder and President Jeremy Nobel addresses a question at the heart of The UnLoneliness Project: “Are there some simple things we can do to separate the idea of loneliness from the very related, but very different idea of being alone?” Being alone can be peaceful, even spiritual, he explains, but when we are lonely, we feel disconnected, irrelevant, and incomplete.

The UnLoneliness Project, a signature initiative of the Foundation of Art & Healing, “threads together what has been learned in 4,000 years of creative expression, and try to make it available to people as a set of activities they can do to be less lonely,” Dr. Nobel tells us. “We’re really interested in how creative arts expression can help address this hiding in plain sight problem which is loneliness.”

Dr. Nobel talks about how loneliness can hold us back from doing the very things that might make us less lonely. In this loop of loneliness, Dr. Nobel asks, how can we be less lonely? “Maybe it’s a simple as telling your story. Maybe we can be less lonely if we tell our stories to other people, and listen to their stories told back to us.” This idea is at the core of Dr. Nobel’s interest in the healing power of the arts, and central to the mission and programs of The UnLoneliness Project.

A distinguished expert in the public health field, Dr. Nobel serves on the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health and advises numerous healthcare organizations. He is also an acclaimed poet, earning him the American Academy of Poets Prize.