Giving yourselves a break now and then can make a world of difference, especially if your emotional wellness has run dry. Sometimes you need to slow down from your busy lifestyle and enjoy a bit of solitude without thinking of all your daily tasks, worries and things you have to do for others.
These sacred minutes on your deserted island are a holiday for your soul and an opportunity to become more self-aware and feel more grounded.
Learn how to disconnect from the outside world and give yourself a “me moment”
Downtime – we all need it in our lives:
If you keep up the pace of modern life, you soon realise that slowing down can be a real challenge. Most of us can’t afford taking some time off just to relax. There is always something we need to do or someone who needs our full attention. We live our life, convincing ourselves we don’t need to rest and when we don’t have nothing to do, we’re feeling guilty for wasting our time.
We’re measuring everything in our life in terms of accomplishment or acquisition and we’re afraid to claim time just for ourselves even if our agenda allows. We spend every hour doing all sorts of chores or trying to benefit from our relationships.
If there’s nothing to do or no one to meet, we’re scrolling our phone or we’re reaching for the TV remote, avoiding to be alone with our thoughts and feelings. We need to understand that it’s OK to retreat from the world for a moment, so we can rejuvenate our mind.
Solitude is a personal choice and has nothing to do with isolation. We need to lean to enjoy our own company and fall in love with the real person that’s inside. It’s an important life hack many of us lost.
What you’ll get when alone:
When we shift our focus from external situations and relationships with others on the relationship we have with our self, we have an opportunity for inner growth and personal expansion.
Even if it can be a real challenge to find time alone, there are a lot of benefits of being with yourself:
You can become more creative: Did you know that John Updike attributes his amazing productivity to the time he spent alone? He wrote 51 books and won the Pulitzer prize by honouring his empty schedule and idle moments that became a real source of inspiration.
Solitude can cure what troubles you. Spending time alone and reflecting about your life can attune yourself to your inner wisdom. Meditating and learning to listen to your body and mind is a skill that brings comfort, healing and balance.
In solitude, we see things more clearly. We live in a society in which we are being constantly pulled outside ourselves by all kinds of daily demands. Nothing teaches us the importance of introspection or how imperative is to learn how to calm our mind and our attention.
This is why, we need to learn how to balance the intensity of our lives through meditation or other mindfulness exercises and techniques and give ourselves more time for our inner world. Alone we can breathe more deeply, became able to see more fully and hear more keenly.
How to find time for yourself
During such demanding times, solitude might seem like taking a vacation. But we all need time to replenish our spirit and discover what makes us happy and alive. By spending time alone, we can rediscover our passions, we can dive into personal projects and engage in activities that bring us joy. We are rediscovering ourselves and learning new languages of self-expression. When they’re not shaped by someone else’s agenda, these experiences become a key to happiness.
Make a date with yourself.
Treat yourself with a weekly expedition to a place that interests you. It can be the art museum, a concert or a fabric store. The important thing is to learn to have fun alone.
Stand firm.
When you finally decide to spend some time alone, try not to let yourself distracted by other proposals. Allow yourself to be alone and see what happens. Stand firm in your commitment.
Be clear about your needs.
When you want to ask for time alone is crucial that you are clear about your needs and explain your feelings, especially if you’re in a relationship. It can be useful to encourage your partner to do the same.
Be on the lookout for stolen moments.
There are so many moments during your day when you can inhibit in solitude. All those minutes when you arrive earlier for appointments, the lunch break, that time in the evening when you’re walking back home from the bus, all of that time can be used to check in with yourself.
Practice doing nothing.
Learn how to relax and don’t make a big deal if there’s nothing to do in your schedule. As a matter of fact, we recommend you to add your time alone in your to-do list.
