Why should you spend time alone in 2022?

When lockdown ended, the primary thing we wanted to try and do was rush into the arms of others. After goodbye spent in isolation, we said yes to every bar drink, coffee date, weekend down and movie night we could with our buddies.

And indeed now that our social lives have returned, doing things alone are some things numerous of us actively try to avoid. The thought of getting to the cinema alone or attending an occasion without a friend’s company fills us with dread. What if people think we were unpopular? Who is there to fill the silence?

But the thing is, there is such a lot of enjoyment to be found in solitary activity.

In the first chapter of her book Atonement, Francesca Specter writes “ Time alone was just a colourless room to tolerate until real-life resumed; it held so little value to me. Solitude was a chore, something I used to be lumbered with doing enough of already. That way, when deliberating between spending a night alone or pursuing just about the other option, I might so often pick the last word .”

Still, as she explains later “ Learning to value alone time is, without a doubt, the most radical and important assignment I have learnt in my life so far .”

For one, there is no wrestling with five different calendars or expecting someone else’s schedule to align with yours to travel and see that exhibition you have been expecting.

The easier you get with time just to yourself, the more you realise that there is no got to declare a Saturday night a washout simply because you can not find anyone to travel to dinner with you. You are the sole company you truly need.

As Specter explains in Alonement “ Neglecting to factor alone time into your lifestyle is like forever forgetting to feature the all-essential baking powder’ to a cake recipe. We all need alonement – as a worth in and of itself – to be our greatest, most authentic selves, and yet we sleep in an extrovert-centric, tech-happy world designed to encourage anything but.”

So to celebrate those pockets of solitary joy, Stylist asked fifteen women who love their own company to inform us their favourite thing about spending time alone. This is often what they said.

Dining alone is such a present. Once you get past the perceived stigma of getting to a restaurant by yourself, it is so enjoyable to select the meal you would like, people watch and take some time .”

Vicky

“ When affected by chronic pain, as I do, enjoying your own company may be a must. Occasionally the presence of people around seem to translate into pain – the noise they create when talking, having to manage their prospects adds to the pain. What I enjoy most is that the sound of silence.”

Hortense

“ getting to the library and bookshops. Bliss!”

Leyla

“ Going for tea alone. Requirements must sometimes as I do not have people to return with me during the week.”

Georgia *

“I want to hate being on my very own, especially once I first moved to London. I then realised that being alone is not equivalent to being lonely. Having used that mantra for several years, now I can happily prioritise my alone time whether it is doing laundry or reading with a cuppa.”

Katherine

“ You are the sole company you truly need”

“ Pottering! The art and wonder of pottering round the range in your own space and time.‘ Active being where minute changes ( i.e. rearranging a drawer) cause you to feel so comfortable.”

Emily

“I am going to my favourite café so albeit I am sitting alone, the energy of individuals around me keeps me motivated and energised. I also keep a day-to-day journal, which helps calm and focus my mind.”

Rachida

“ Creating my very own comforting Spotify playlists for the various moods I will feel.”

Jess

“ I have found planning my alone time makes it far more enjoyable. I write it into my daybook, so it feels as important as plans with buddies. I write an inventory of the items I am getting to do, albeit it is as simple because of the film I am getting to watch. It takes a number of the overwhelm away, feeling such as you have all this‘ empty’ space before you.”

Angelica

“ Pottering around doing satisfying jobs like organising and rearranging. No deadline involved or element of it being a chore.”

Helen

“ Book shopping or sitting during a café with my book alone. Also buying things to practise mindfulness seems like proper self-care because I do know I can do scrapbooking or colouring once I am back home.”

Olivia

“ It varies counting on the time of year, or where I am at in my life, but immediately my favourite way of paying time alone goes to the Everyman cinema on a Monday or Tuesday evening, enjoying a comfortable armchair all to myself and watching my film of choice with a glass of malbec and a few Padron peppers to snack on. Single cinema may be a wonderfully immersive, escapist experience. While you are not technically alone – everyone’s sitting there together in their world, in respectful silence – there is still something special that .”

Francesca

“ Walking alone allows me time to be with my thoughts and self. I prefer it to be in nature. The sensation of trees around me grounds and roots me into my sense of spirit. It is a holistic time on behalf of me .”

Jocelyn *

“I like taking myself off for a cuppa somewhere with an honest book, preferably nearly relatively quiet. That and taking myself out for lunch. I make some extent of doing this as oft as possible.”

SOURCE 

https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/mental-health/how-to-enjoy-time-alone/584962