The Soul's Holiday !

          I clearly recall it was Thursday, everyone here in the office were excited for much awaited long weekend. Off the hectic schedule and festive mood, I decided to stay offline during this period. No to phone, surfing, Google, Facebook, Whatsapp and no WORK too!

         Day one started. I realized I was all by myself. Almost immediately my heart skipped a beat and I felt a moment of fear where I thought I was alone. But I quickly overcame it because I felt my blood rush with excitement and curiosity, thinking about the brand new chapter of my life that was about to begin.

        Don’t get me wrong, I am not a loner or a sociopath. I am a very bubbly person who loves chattering away and hanging out with people and then there’s no stopping me. But sometimes I just love to be in solitude. Yes, that’s what I am talking about.

       “Solitude”, not loneliness.

        

        Let me clear you here, Solitude is when you make a choice to be away from everyone so you can be with yourself. When you do not depend on anyone or anything for your happiness. Loneliness unfortunately is not in your hands. It’s not for nothing that they say “Learn to enjoy your own company” because if you try it, it sure is a lot of fun! That is the first and very important lesson I have learnt. Paul Tillich an English writer said, “Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.”

       Generally the problem with everyone is that they think they cannot do something or go to someplace because a friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/family member is not there at that time.

So what ?

       Yes, it’s cute that you and your best friend have this tradition of hanging out together and so you don’t want to go without them. But do you know the weirdly exciting feeling of watching a movie all by yourself? The joy in buying a single ticket, sitting there and hear yourself laugh forgetting that you came alone or clutching your popcorn bag with fear for a scary bit (the popcorn which now is safe from your friend’s ever poking hand!) In fact if you are a fan of horror movies, they are best enjoyed alone!

       Lunches and dinners with the girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife are always romantic and fun. You go to certain places because they hold special memories for you. For once, try going on your own. Then maybe you can order what you always wanted to but didn’t because he doesn’t like it or something which is her favorite but because she is on a diet (which is almost always!) you don’t want to order it and make her feel bad. All of that is very sweet and considerate but sometimes both of you should be allowed to be spoilt for choice.

       All these people in your life are important to you, yes. But so are YOU.

       However, you don’t always have to go out somewhere. Solitude is perfectly found even at home in doing whatever makes you happy. It may be snuggling in your favorite chair with a book or watching your favorite TV show.

      The best way of being with yourself is to sit back and let your mind run free. Psychologists say that such inspection of one’s life in solitude gives an opportunity for emotional self-assessment and helps get a better perspective of you, going a long way in building a healthy personality. At the end of the day who knows you better than yourself and you can only get to know something by spending more time with it.

      But hey don’t get so lost in solitude that you start feeling that the world revolves around you or worse, you develop the tendencies of a serial killer! Just don’t forget to take out the much needed “soul's holiday” every once in a while.