The art of solitude
When was the last time your brain truly rested?
It’s okay to be alone sometimes. It is good for you. Be alone with your thoughts, get a piece of paper, and write about them—about anything at all. Allow yourself to be bored. When was the last time you did nothing without external stimulation?
Resting isn’t only about laying down and closing your eyes. Enjoying solitude doesn’t mean you are antisocial, only that you like your own company. And you can only enjoy it once you know yourself and start working on the person you want to be. But you can’t know who you want to be when you don’t even listen to your own voice.
Meditate, journal, draw, paint—do things your brain finds pleasure in and hear it. Live in the moment. Don’t try to make that voice compete with another one. It is already too silenced by the day-to-day noise. Forget your earphones for a day and pretend that music or podcasts don’t exist. Those things won’t disappear when you return.
When was the last time you heard your inner voice without suppressing it or judging it? Do you even remember what it sounds like? Do you even know what it needs? What you need?
So do it. Take a piece of paper and write about the first thing that comes to mind. Try to hear that low voice, the little dreamer that lives in your head, and you’ll see how the desperate attempts for attention fade as the pen touches the paper, as the words start to shape the sentence you’ve been trying to understand for so long: “I am here.”