I understand that for many people loneliness isn't a blessing
I think there is a misunderstanding about the word "loneliness" here (which I used to share). I was skimming an academic article about this some time ago, and was very surprised when they gave a definition of loneliness that is apparently standard in academia: something like "your emotional needs are not met by the people around you/in your life". It has nothing at all to do with whether or not or how many people are present in your life, and whether or not you like the company of other people. By this definition, you are not lonely, and furthermore loneliness is definitionally bad and cannot be a "blessing".
Maybe I just personally never had a proper definition of "loneliness" in my head to begin with, but I think this rather technical usage of the word "lonely" is an extreme disconnect between researchers/academic writing and how the general populace interprets the word.
I think there is a misunderstanding about the word "loneliness" here (which I used to share). I was skimming an academic article about this some time ago, and was very surprised when they gave a definition of loneliness that is apparently standard in academia: something like "your emotional needs are not met by the people around you/in your life". It has nothing at all to do with whether or not or how many people are present in your life, and whether or not you like the company of other people. By this definition, you are not lonely, and furthermore loneliness is definitionally bad and cannot be a "blessing".
Maybe I just personally never had a proper definition of "loneliness" in my head to begin with, but I think this rather technical usage of the word "lonely" is an extreme disconnect between researchers/academic writing and how the general populace interprets the word.