Diana Aydin on How Her Faith Helped Her Overcome Loneliness

Hey Guideposts, I’m Diana Aydin and this is my story.

So I had lived in New York City with my sisters for almost 10 years and we did everything together. We got our nails done together, we had dinners together, I could always knock on their door whenever I needed to chat, and then they both got married less than a year apart and suddenly I was on my own.

I got my own apartment and I was really experiencing feeling lonely and all the quiet that comes with it. So I had to really learn how to get myself out of that situation and rely on God.

The biggest advice I have for someone who’s transitioning to being on their own is to surround yourself with people, even if it seems difficult. So when I was feeling lonely and all of that, I told myself, “People are like medicine. So you have to—sometimes you don’t want to take medicine but you have to be around people. It’s gonna help you so much.” So I got out my phone and I texted my sisters and my friends and I said, “Hey, let’s do something.”
 
The biggest way that being lonely affected my relationship with God is it really made me rely on Him a little bit more and also talk to Him more, so whenever I was afraid to go into a situation on my own, like if it was a social thing or, like, a show and I was, like, “Oh my gosh, I’m the only one here,” I would say a little prayer and I would be like, “God, be with me. I need a little strength and courage.”

And it really worked. I felt so much more confident or, like, “God has my back, I can do this.” So I don’t know if I always did that before and now I feel like when I’m nervous or even excited about something, I say a little prayer. I feel like I’m much more aware of the fact that I’m not alone, that someone is with me all the time and God has my back.