Although humans need the company of others more often than not, being alone is sometimes not a bad idea. Many good things can come from moments of solitude that are valuable and very useful in an individual’s life. Take note that we aren't encouraging you to become a hermit but to just sometimes take a step back and enjoy your own company. Here is a list of reasons why moments of solitude can be valuable.
Self-Reflection
The only way you can become efficient and productive in your life is by truly understanding yourself. This involves understanding what you really like, what makes you sad, what makes you tick and your dreams. If you do not have an understanding of this, then your life becomes vain and directionless. Therefore, by taking time to enjoy your solitude, you can critically reflect on your values and goals as an individual without any outside influence. This will foster self-growth and help you improve in certain life aspects that you see fit for improvement. It will also help you become more established and ready to develop in the right direction both personally and professionally.
Enhanced Focus
When you take moments of solitude, you can silence all outside noises and just focus on yourself. All the rush and buzz that comes with social media and social crowds is hushed. This means that all the distractions in your life are locked away and you can just ‘be’. This allows you to focus on the things that matter, for example, your goals, work and other productive things you may want to do. This is why some great scientists got their most brilliant ideas while in solitude. This is because when you take time for yourself, you can focus more. The next time you find yourself losing focus, consider just taking a moment of solitude and you'll be pleased with what you will be able to accomplish.
Reduction In Stress Levels
Taking time to just be alone is a perfect way of taking a mental breather, allowing you to destress. We all need to allow our minds to just take a break from all the pressures we have to deal with at home, work and with all the interactions that require our energy. All the worrying and anxiety involved with these interactions take a toll on our mental health as they cause stress. By taking some alone time, your feelings of stress are naturally reduced, helping you to become more relaxed and providing you with a sense of calm. Take some time off everything and give yourself a moment of solitude so that you can manage your stress level better.
Enhanced Creativity
Uninterrupted thinking is the right breeding room for all your creative ideas that may have been pushed down over the years. Due to all the things that require your attention more daily, you may not have gotten the time or opportunity to tap into your creative nature and just explore your creativity boundaries. However, by getting uninterrupted thinking time, you can freely explore all ideas you may have without fear of judgment or anxiety. This is, therefore, potential grounds for very creative and innovative ideas, which may be the breakthrough you need. You need to take some time in solitude if you want your creative side to thrive.
Better Emotional Regulation
Our failure to regulate our emotional feelings is usually a result of external influences. It's either they make you more emotionally drained or you become dependent on other people to regulate your feelings for you, which is not the normal thing. By taking some personal solitude time off, you can take time to understand your feelings and how they affect your behaviour as well as how to regulate them. This allows you to take control of your feelings, making you better at stress management and life-coping skills.
Enhanced Clarity
Have you ever overreacted in a situation and after taking some time alone, you then see how flawed you were to do that? Or maybe, have you ever felt like a certain situation does not affect you, then days later, you found yourself wallowing in pain over the situation? This is because a person is more likely to have an increase in clarity when they take some time alone to think things through and evaluate the situation without external influences. By having a clear mind, what matters more and what matters the least becomes clearer to you, allowing you to look at things more objectively. If it's your goals that you need clarity on, this moment of solitude will be very effective in helping you get in touch with yourself again.
Nurtures Your Intuition
Most of us are not in sync with our intuition at all. Do you, however, know that it is not something to normalise or overlook? Our instincts help us trust our gut feelings, and more often than not, our gut feelings will be right. Our intuition is like our very own warning system that helps us foresee when we are in danger or if something terrible is about to happen, and if we master trusting this system, we might just find ourselves facing fewer problems than we currently do. Solitude helps us reconnect with this side of us, allowing us to nurture our instincts and become better at interpreting our feelings and listening to them. Our instincts can even help us become better at decision-making, and so if it's solitude that you need to get this valuable aspect of yourself back, then it's probably wiser to consider it.