Spending time alone is a quality of people who enjoy their own company. These are folks with the inner resources to manage their time to allow for opportunities to grow and learn on their own. Building personal interests increases self-esteem, develops the ability to organize and concentrate well, and brings a feeling of self-satisfaction different from the time spent with others. It's enjoyable because of the pleasure one feels from meeting ones goals in a deeply personal way while feeling productive and tranquil.
10 Ways to Spend Time Alone
1. Choose an interest that requires concentration without interference from others. Perhaps you want to try something you've always yearned to do but everyday life has intervened.
2. Create "me-time." This is time to do something that relaxes you and distracts you from worries and stressors.
3. Begin becoming an expert in something that draws your attention but you haven't pursued before. Research says is takes 10,000 hours of focus on a subject to become an expert. Time to begin those hours!
4. Create a personal space in your residence that belongs only to you. It could be a whole room or a section of a room that everyone knows is just yours. Go there when you need time to collect yourself.
5. Chose a pastime that you've done before but only sparingly. Now is the time to enjoy your time alone with that activity. It may be something you learned months or years before and have found you read about but haven't followed in any depth before.
6. Create a journal of your own private thoughts. This is a way for some to get to know themselves better and find out more of who they are.
7. Build your self-confidence by practicing an activity that you usually only do with others. Then when you're back with friends once again, your dexterity will be more fine-tuned.
8. Do nothing in particular. Just spend time with yourself in a comfortable spot that gives you a tranquil mind and settles your body so it is free from tension. Take as long as you need. You may find in only a short while the tension is released from your body.
9. You may very much enjoy your actual occupation. Only usually it's filled with the stress of others around you working by your side. Pursue learning more about your field without the proximity of others. You will gain knowledge and come back to the work place renewed and fulfilled.
10. Give yourself the luxury of taking a nap once in a while during the day. You may sleep deeply or just rest musing. In each case, you will gain the respite from daily life that you hardly knew you needed. Stress can roll off of you and worries dissipate.
In all these ways and many more that fit just you, you benefit from learning that time with yourself is a pleasure you may have never known before or need renewing. Enjoy it and do it often. Every busy schedule can find minutes just for yourself once you've learned the benefits.
Laurie Hollman, Ph.D. is a psychoanalyst with a recent book, Unlocking Parental Intelligence: Finding Meaning in Your Child's Behavior, found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Familius, libraries, and wherever books are sold.