How to Lifeschool? - Solitude

Solitude to Self-Explore

At a festival, I recently attended, one of the speakers gave the members of the audience an interesting exercise. It was an exercise in solitude. The speaker told us to close our eyes, and to take in long deep breaths. He told us to focus on our breathing and to do this for one minutes. I closed my eyes and started the exercise. After a few seconds, I got restless. My thoughts wandered and I started thinking about the following things:-

·     When will the speaker tell us to open our eyes?

·     If I open my eyes now they see me?

·     What if I open my eyes and the person next to me open his eyes as well and then we see each other?

·     What will I get out of this activity?

After the activity the speaker told us to think about the past one minute of our life and to think about how it felt.

That is when it struck me that I could not close my eyes and be at peace for even a minute. I was uncomfortable being on my own. I was uncomfortable with solitude.

Why spend quality time with yourself alone?

·     It gives you times to reflect about life.

·     It lets you spend time with yourself and you get to understand yourself better.

·     It gives you time to think about what you are doing and why you are actually doing it.

·     It refreshes your mind and lets you work better.

·     It lets you come back to your project or job with a fresh perspective.

Why don’t we spend more time alone growing up?

Because at most educational institutes we are so consumed by grades and so consumed by competing with each other that we cannot take out time to do anything else, forget spending time being along and reflecting on life.

Yes, some schools and educational institutes reduce the workload so that you have more time for extra-curricular activities. But most of these activities again become competitions among the students.

Sometimes spending time along and doing nothing is a very productive thing to do over the long term. Because it rejuvenates and refreshes our soul and the time spend in solitude if used effectively can rekindle the spark of our lives.

Also if you can meditate, you have the greatest tool to explore the beauty of solitude ever.

Let us Learn Together

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