I read a quote once that in a lifetime there’s no one you’ll spend more time with than yourself. Therefore you have to learn to enjoy your own company and solitude. The relationship that you have with yourself sets precedence for all other relationships, and that’s why you must set time aside to cultivate a friendship with yourself.
When I was in high school, my teacher asked us an important question that I still think about up to date. How many of us can spend time in a room by ourselves without electronics or any form of entertainment? How long would it take before you start to feel uncomfortable and feel the need to interact with other people or distract yourself with something else? She went ahead to say that some of us have no relationship with ourselves. It’s like we try to run away from our core by constantly engaging in distractive things. Learn to enjoy your alone time, and you will see a big difference in the amount of self-growth you achieve.
Here are a few tips that you might want to use to enjoy your solitude.
- Fill your time
They say that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Ensure that there’s no point at which you are just seated idling around. Find activities to fill this time. It can be a hobby, a form of exercise or even just de-cluttering your room and workspace. If at any point you are idle, then sad thoughts may start to creep in. Make sure that at all times you have scheduled something constructive to do. If you look around you will find that there’s so much to do. When you have a lot of time to yourself, make good use of it.
- Challenge yourself
As you’re trying to enjoy your solitude, you should ensure that you do activities to challenge yourself. That way you’ll learn a lot more about yourself and it will keep your mind busy. These challenges can be online games, or you can even challenge yourself to read a specific number of books within a specified period. By inventing new ways to push your boundaries you will start to see the beauty in solitude.
- Monitor your thoughts
When you’re spending time with yourself it’s very easy to allow sad thoughts to consume you. This is because during this period you end up thinking a lot. The distractions are usually limited. That’s why I would advise you to monitor your thoughts. Ensure that you are only thinking positive thoughts that help you to grow or build yourself. Learn to validate yourself and in doing so you won’t need external validation.
- Expand your knowledge intellectually
This is a pro-tip for enjoying your solitude. In an age where the internet is so accessible, there’s so much that can be learnt from home. You can take up a free online course and learn something new. You can read interesting thought-provoking write-ups that make you think critically. Because when you do this you actively engage your brain and in doing so you improve yourself and learn to enjoy your alone time. Education: 5 Short Courses You Can Take On Coursera
- Self-reflection
Analyze your life. Understand your triggers. Learn yourself a little bit more. This is the only way of reaching the highest form of yourself. When you are spending time by yourself this is very important. Think about it, in a normal situation there are so many things that distract you from deeply reflecting on your life. There’s so much noise and work to be done that we hardly ever set time aside for deep meditation. If you reflect on yourself you will learn yourself a little more and this will help you to grow and improve your relationship with others around you.
- Learn a new skill
When trying to enjoy your solitude, the idea is to be pre-occupied either mentally or physically at all times. How many of us have time to learn new skills that aren’t related to our careers? Learn a new hobby like riding a bike, painting, or even how to play the piano. There are so many things to be done for fun, and by yourself. You can even learn a whole new language. The progress and satisfaction that you get knowing that you taught yourself something will be unmatched, and who knows? Maybe one day this new skill can be converted to an income-generating activity. 6 Reasons Why You Need To Learn Skills Outside Your Job
- Plan for the future
You have probably heard the saying that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. How many of us have actual short and long-term goals, and what are we doing to attain these goals? I’ve heard so many people say that written down dreams have high capabilities of being achieved. So take a notebook, sit down, and plan your life. Note down your ideal achievements and goals, and break down the process of how you’re going to get there. Planning for the future – How to create a Financial Plan
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