Prompted by the pandemic, Reverend Sarah Bachelard moved daily meditations at the Benedictus Contemplative Church in Lyneham to Zoom.

While worried it wouldn't create the same nurturing space as the independent Christian community's church building, Ms Bachelard found attendance jumped dramatically.

"One night we had 92 connections, and behind each connection there's often two or more people - a couple or a family," she said. Before COVID-19 hit, half that number might have turned up each day.

The majority of people were surprised by how easy it was to establish a sense of community by gathering to meditate together online, and Ms Bachelard found using virtual meeting platform Zoom created a "kind of paradoxical intimacy" because it gave a glimpse into each other's homes and lives.

"We're also actually seeing one another closer up, we're really seeing the face in the little box on the screen, rather than the back of people's heads when we're together in church," she said.

Ms Bachelard said the real mystery of meditation was how powerful it was to simply sit together in silence.

"And that's what is happening on Zoom, we're sharing a period of silence."

The spiritual director of the Tibetan Buddhist Society of Canberra, Lama Choedak Rinpoche, said he had received more thank-you letters in the past six months than in 30 years of teaching.

For Lama Rinpoche, 2020 has been the busiest year of his career. Participation in Tibetan Buddhist Society online courses and teachings doubled, as workshops have run back-to-back since March and remote meditation retreats, usually held in idyllic countryside surroundings,moved online.

Lama Rinpoche said the online format meant people who were not usually able to attend because of mobility issues could access meditation and mindfulness workshops from home.

The services have helped people feeling "extremely frightened, insecure, fearful and anxious" deal with new emotional, mental and spiritual stresses.

"A stimulus from the government is good," Lama Rinpoche said. "But people really need an emotional stimulus right now."

Lama Rinpoche said in times of uncertainty and social distancing, there was a lot to learn from the teachings of Buddhism.

"Even when not in lockdown here, we encourage people to go in isolation, go in solitude, in their everyday life," he said.

In the Buddhist tradition, long periods of solitude are recommended at least three four times a year, to soothe the spirit, mind and body. The Buddha himself spent six years in solitude after leaving home, meditating on human values like kindness, compassion and selflessness.

"In my whole 20 years of monastic training, I would never be qualified to be the teacher I am, unless I finished three and five years solitary meditation," Lama Rinpoche said.

Instead of dwelling on what can't be controlled, Lama Rinpoche advised Canberrans to "seek time to find some peace".

"If you have some spirituality, learn to go to your cultural and spiritual roots and learn from each other."

Australian Catholic University researcher Dr Dawn LaValle Norman was also used to spending time alone. She spent a year living in a monastery when she was 25, with just two hours of internet a week.

Now, Dr LaValle Norman is looking at history to combat feelings of loneliness that come with social distancing. She has created a collection of online resources, Emotions of Isolation, that trace thinkers and communities over thousands of years to help people manage the emotional challenges that come with increased time alone.

The feeling of friendship, despair, waiting, comfort, location and embodiment are all explored in the project - a few emotions people have felt during the pandemic.

"My life was going really fast when it happened - I was on a long trip away from home, then there was a big rush to get back to Australia before the border was closed, and suddenly I was in this two weeks of quarantine in one room with my five month old baby and my husband," Dr LaValle Norman said.

"Suddenly, I had to say, well, can something good come from this time instead of simply frustration and feeling stuck?"

"I think what was so shocking about [lockdown] is how sudden it was."

Dr LaValle Norman said though the circumstances of isolation were difficult to change, the way people thought about being apart from others was something that could be controlled and managed. The Emotions in Isolation project became a form of self therapy for her to think more positively about the unique moment she was in.

"Doing this project I was trying to take something that wasn't a choice and make it a choice - to say I'm going to try to embrace it, and try to see what you can make of it instead," she said.

"Isolation is something people have experienced throughout history and in certain times it's been something that they sought.

"So, it's helpful to think about why people chose isolation and what they gained from it."

Though loneliness might seem like an age-old concept, it's actually a relatively new one. Dr LaValle Norman said the idea only arose in the 19th century, when Enlightenment thinkers began considering how to withdraw from the self.

In early Christianity, though, Dr LaValle Norman said withdrawing from society was actually a way to become more spiritually connected with others, and isolation was beneficial.

In today's context, she said being part of a community where everyone was sharing the same experience might have actually made us feel closer to one another, despite being physically apart.

"During the pandemic we've been able to participate in conferences on the other side of the world, because now it's all online. It can actually make us feel more connected," she said.

The increase in live-streaming of religious celebrations and events was one way the pandemic had allowed communities to come together from great distances and share experiences, knowledge and faith.

"It's been amazing to see everything go virtual so quickly," she said.

"You miss seeing people in person, but as a result, people from anywhere can be part of conversations that they wouldn't necessarily have been able to otherwise.

"The isolation can break down the isolation."

For Dr LaValle Norman, being in lockdown had paradoxically allowed her to keep better contact with her family, and rekindle old relationships even though she was missing their physical presence.

"I was supposed to go to America for a month that had to be canceled, but actually, I've seen [my family] more and spoken to them more than I maybe would have if I had been there for a couple weeks in May," she said.

Dr LaValle Norman said others already used to living a life of isolation may be even better placed to cope with the change of this year.

"You think about people who live isolated lives all the time, and often our minds go to people who are in nursing homes, and don't have much interaction, and certainly they're not filling their time with Facebook," she said.

"But they've learned other ways of coping with isolation because of the different cultures that they grew up in."