Most people do not spend enough time alone. I was recently talking with a friend about the importance of solitude — an element of living that is incredibly difficult to incorporate into our media saturated American lifestyles. It has been said that the great omission in American life is solitude…that zone of time and space, free from the outside pressures, which is the incinerator of the spirit.
What do you do when you are alone and without outside stimuli? Try turning off the TV, the radio and just being for two hours and see what you learn about yourself. Without solitude we never have the ability to fully know our true selves.
The great Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “none of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” Emerson is masterful in his understanding of the human spirit. If we aspire to do something great or to maximize our ultimate potential, then we first must understand the most basic fundamentals of yourself first. It in our own moments of solitude that we learn to love, understand and accept ourselves, and in turn can share ourselves with others.