There’s a big difference between being alone and feeling lonely. Feeling lonely is a choice; not everyone who is alone feels lonely. In fact, many people deeply need and enjoy their alone time.
Once we learn to embrace the value of being alone, we realize these 11 amazing benefits:
1. You make the plans
While it’s good to follow the group at times, when you’re alone you get to steer the ship and decide which plans you make. Being alone means you don’t have to compromise on what you want to do, you can fully pursue everything you wish.
2. You get more done
In general, when we have alone time we’re able to focus on our work. While it’s nice to be around others, they can serve as sources of distraction and can keep us from accomplishing the things we want to do. Being alone allows us to focus and to really get a lot done.
3. You strengthen your independence
Everyone strives to be independent and likes to view themselves this way, but how independent are we? Once you spend some time alone, you are able to understand how attached we’ve become to needing others, when in reality we are quite self-sufficient. During our alone times, we can truly practice our independence.
4. You get a full recharge
As lovable and wonderful as people are, it requires time, attention and energy to interact with them. If we are constantly surrounded by others, we sometimes become unaware of our own energy levels and that we need to recharge our own batteries. When you’re alone, you get much needed time to rejuvenate your energy.
5. You can face your own feelings in a healthier way
Being alone allows you to truly embrace and get in touch with your emotions. Turning our focus inwards helps us understand the way our feelings work, from thoughts, to feelings, and vice-versa. Learning about ourselves, and ‘knowing oneself’ is the only true way to become wise. Being surrounded by the busyness of life and many people can cause us to lose our awareness of our inner emotional state if we’re not careful, and also can cause us to suppress our feelings. Being isolated for a time allows our feelings to emerge and gives us time to fully understand them.
6. You gain validation from within
Many people seek validation from outside of themselves, seeking the approval and attention from others in order to feel good enough. This is a very draining and insecure attitude to take, as it depends on the views of another person. After understanding our own imperfections, we can also understand how imperfect other people are, and that our self-worth and self-images should not be decided by the opinions of others. We are always ‘good enough’ and ‘worthy’. When we are alone, we are able to validate ourselves by ourselves, giving us strength and a healthy self-esteem.
7. You don’t have to please or offend anyone
Being alone allows us to let our guard down for a bit and to be natural and raw with who we are. While it’s truly wonderful to be kind and to care for others, we all need some rest from thinking about how our behavior, words and actions have affected others. Being alone allows us to focus on ourselves and our needs, and we deserve every bit as much love as we give to others. You can’t pour from an empty cup.
8. You learn to appreciate the people around you more
Similar to how eating too much chocolate can make us not want to eat any for a while, when we have too much of something we sometimes are unable to fully appreciate it. Being around others is similar. When we have some alone time, we begin to appreciate the time we spend with others more.
9. You have time to reflect
As we face the day to day of our lives, reflection is very important in understanding where we are at and where we want to go. Being alone gives us this much needed time to reflect and to get a good bearing on where we’re headed. Reflecting is one of the main ways we learn about ourselves and about life.
10. After reflecting, you can finally let go
Many of the thoughts that lead us away from the present moment are connected to things we haven’t fully thought about and evaluated. After spending a bit of time reflecting on these things, we can understand the message and finally let go, allowing our energy to return to ourselves.
11. You discover parts of yourself that you didn’t know existed
Through being alone, you get a chance to rediscover yourself; to understand the parts which have been neglected through constantly being busy during daily routines. The constant noise and endless conversations we engage in or are subjected to by being near others are allowed to quiet down as we explore what our own energy feels like. Being alone is empowering as our minds are allowed to become quiet as we fully experience ourselves.
“Sometimes I need to go off on my own. I’m not sad. I’m not angry. I’m just recharging my batteries.”
