Why do we feel the need to connect with others? Whether it is relationships and connections in person, on the phone, text, internet, etc. , we want others around us. The typical answer is that "we are social creatures and being social increases the likelihood of our survival via cooperation ." While that answer is true, there is more to it.
We want to connect, whether through deep, intimate relationships or other more casual connections, because that feeling of 'wholeness' we get in befriending or otherwise connecting with another is reflective of our true state. That bliss we temporarily feel in a romantic relationship when we first meet someone new is our natural state, which is covered up by identification with the mental patterns of the mind. We are not the mind.
When we connect with others, we mistakenly think it is the experience of being with or around that person/people that is the source of bliss. In actuality, in those moments of bliss, the mental chatter temporarily stops and in those moments you perceive your own inner bliss reflected in the mirror of the 'other' person. There is ultimately no such things as 'others' because nothing exists aside from the self. Everything that has ever happened or will happened, happens within you. Every idea, thought, perceived news article or world event, every relationship, pain pleasure, etc.....you are perceiving it via the senses. No one can name anything that has ever happened that is not perceived within themselves first. In the story of a historical event before the birth/incarnation of the body is not perceived until the story is told and perceived by the senses. Even in the field of science, every experiment, no matter how well controlled, is affected by the observer. Nothing happens outside you nor is anything separate from you.
Having healthy relationships and connections with other people is a beautiful thing. The joy of those experiences is enhanced when one realizes that the universe is nothing more than a mirror for the limitless self.
There is no outside you and inside you. There only is.......