Spend quality time with the most important person in your life: yourself. To be alone does not mean to be lonely. Retreat, reflect, and regenerate are the three “R’s” of solitude; cornerstones that can provide support and perspective in any situation in life.
The path to having children can be a hurdle and a strain on your strength. It is often accompanied by the expectations of third parties, who mean well but do not know that even the best advice or commentary at the wrong moment can cause the barrel to overflow. Nowadays, even the ideals perpetuated on social media quickly become too much of a good thing and put more obstacles in your way.
It is quite normal to want to be alone from time to time, and even though our society unfairly ascribes attributes such as loneliness, isolation, or other negative connotations to being alone, it is often necessary to retreat to be able to gain distance, reflect, and replenish one’s own physical and mental energy resources.
To be alone allows us to be able to remove our social masks, to not have to conform to the expectations and opinions of others, to be completely honest with ourselves. The thoughts, feelings, opinions, expressions, attitudes, and behaviour of people close to us influence our thoughts and actions. This external source of influence can be very stressful and deceptive. It is a great help to get advice and support from others, but if you feel the heaviness of the support, the well-intentioned advice becomes more oppressive than motivating. Being alone can create the necessary space to clear your head and listen in on yourself.
However, you don’t need to hop onto the next plane all by yourself, lock yourself in your room or plan a solo camping trip into the wilderness. Just a few lines in a diary or journal can help you to grasp and reflect on your own thoughts and feelings. A walk out in the fresh air, a hobby or an activity you have only to yourself, or an hour you spend alone on the sofa with or without a good book or a glass of wine, can provide the needed tranquillity and freedom for self-observation and self-reflection.
Find yourself, bring yourself into balance, get to know your inner voice and listen to it, because it is your best guidance.
