The School of Life
How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland is an exploration of the culture of solitude. It provides a historical overview of the concept of being alone and its importance in the modern world, as well as tips for enjoying and embracing alone time.
Do you ever wish you had more time to yourself? These days, society puts a lot of pressure on us to stay socially active and focus on work, which means less time for ourselves. And yet, alone time can improve your personal well-being and creativity.
That’s because, first of all, spending time alone allows you to discover your real “self.”
When you’re alone, you can focus on a deeper understanding of who you are and what matters to you. Only by spending time alone, free of outside influences, can you discover these important parts of yourself.
For example, the famous author Henry David Thoreau spent over two years alone in the woods of Walden Pond rediscovering himself. This time allowed him to assess his own values and those of the society around him. All of this led to Thoreau publishing his groundbreaking book Walden in 1854.
With this kind of dedicated time alone, you can unlock and increase your creativity.
In fact, many creative people in various fields have recognized solitude as a main source of creative output.
The influential author Virginia Woolf believed that spending time alone was vital to creativity. In her 1929 book, A Room of One’s Own, she saw the lack of solitude as being linked to the relatively small number of female writers at the time. Woolf saw that females were not lacking talent, imagination or intelligence; they were lacking time alone to allow their creativity to blossom.
The link between solitude and the happiness of creative freedom can be seen throughout history.
Another example is the actress Greta Garbo. At the age of 35, after having appeared in 28 movies, Garbo decided to retire from acting and live a simple and solitary life. She continued to have an active social life, but by giving herself plenty of time alone, she was able to enjoy peace and creativity.
So make sure you schedule yourself some alone time and reap the joys of solitude.
Today’s socially focused culture leaves us very little time to ourselves and unprepared for times when we may actually need to be alone. How to Be Alone (2014) shows us that we don’t need to be scared of solitude, and that there are many benefits and joys to be found in being alone. So don’t be afraid, go solo!
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school for genius. – Edward Gibbon, English historian.
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