HEALTH AND WELLNESS TOPIC.30(1)

By likemindblog

Among the many newsletters I subscribe to, one of them sent me a book I thought I’d share with you.

This little book is not about forced solitude or how to deal with it. It’s not about being lonely or running away from the world into a cave in the mountains. Rather, solitude is an exercise of nurturing your state of mind to achieve interior freedom.

Read on to discover the many advantages of solitude.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOLITUDE FOR A BALANCED LIFE

PUT YOUR LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE

Being in your own company gives you the chance to see where you’re heading in terms of your relationships, career, and spiritual evolution. If you spend at least a half an hour each day looking back at the previous day and analyzing how you lived it, you’ll gain some great insights. That’s the power of perspective!

One thing you may realize as you self-reflect is that the greatest amount of time and energy spent on an average day goes into maintaining healthy relationships. But when you’re alone, you can decide which ones are worth keeping and nurturing. Remember that a good relationship is one that all ws both people involved to grow into better people.

Ask yourself whether your relationships follow this wise counsel.

In the same way, consider your career. If you have a career goal, are you heading in the right direction? Have you been in a hopeless work situation for far too long because you’re afraid of change? Is there some other profession that you dream of constantly? What are your priorities in life?

For instance, you might think that nurturing your creative pastimes or your children are more important than your day job. If so, would it make sense to take the plunge and freelance, instead of continuing with your 9 to 5 job?

LEARN TO BE INDEPENDENT

Psychoanalysts say that the capacity to spend time alone is the mark of emotional maturity. So what is meant by solitude? Well, when you’re sitting by yourself glued to your cell phone, or browsing your Facebook account, it is not solitude.

In fact, in these days of hi-tech gadgets that enable people to communicate with each other regardless of where they may be, it’s difficult to find those who actually prefer solitude. But perhaps you will prefer some occasional solitude, once you see the many benefits.

For example, if you can’t find a companion to go to the movies, do you still go by yourself? Of course, there’s no physical harm in going alone, is there?

You don’t have to be in the company of others in order to feel fulfilled and happy. In solitude, you like your own company!

Being alone often helps you to think deeper about the challenges in your life. And when you’re emotionally and mentally prepared, you’ll be better able to meet them head on.

It’s an empowering feeling to figure things out for yourself. You’ll begin to love yourself for your own competence and resourcefulness, and loving yourself is important if you want others to love you!

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after one’s own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”-Ralf Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance.

GET THOSE CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING

However, most creative minds require physical solitude. In a special private space created by a lack of distractions from friends and lovers, plenty of growth takes place.

For instance, a creative writer always has the seeds of stories germinating in his brain. These take time to incubate and manifest, and this process requires contemplation. But how can you contemplate when you’re constantly with others or enslaved by the telephone and television? And then you might very well complain of the well-known “writer’s block!” In creative writing, you need time to be alone and do your research. Doing so will spring more ideas and you’ll be able to actually write!

Anthony Storr, author of Solitude, notes that writers of genius like Tolstoy and Beatrix Potter found their creativity declining when they were enmeshed in family matters and interpersonal relationships.

Storr says: “Creative artists are quite likely to choose relationships which will further their work, rather than relationships which are intrinsically rewarding, and their spouses may well find their marital relations take second place.”

“When I am, as it were,completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer , say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abondantly!” – Wolfgang Amadeux Mozart.

Creative minds value solitude. Even people like Mozart and Brahms, who could concentrate on their creations when surrounded by people, could do so only because they were absorbed in their own thoughts. This was their chosen state of solitude.

to be continued next week…