The voice inside of us is not very loud. It is shy and retreats in the face of distraction, noise, demands. It wants to help us, to guide us but reveals much of what it has to say in whispers, glimpses and vague images. Nurturing a relationship with it and hearing what it has to say requires solitude, time in silence. The ego, the conscious mind, the mind that constantly demands attention and seeks stimulus, the chattering mind, the mind of desire and fear, doesn’t like solitude. Living a creative life, an independent life on our own terms, pursuing our dreams means risking failure. It probably involves a degree of discomfort. The ego abhors discomfort.

And time alone means loneliness. The purpose of the ego is to help us interact with others. Our ego thinks up countless reasons why solitude is a bad idea. It is wired for complexity. Its purpose is to react to threats and stimulus. To build a relationship with our inner world, our source of creativity and resourcefulness, means reducing the amount of complexity in our lives. Solitude and simplicity and quiet go together. Spiritual masters throughout history and in all spiritual disciplines have lived simple lives, lives that involved periods, often long periods, of solitude and quiet in order to give space and time to the inner voice. The God within.

Many problems of life are related to a lack of self-knowledge. Particularly problems around what to do, what choices to make. How much uncertainty at major intersections did Mother Teresa experience?  Jesus? The Buddha? Gandhi? All spent long periods of time in quiet seclusion. Self-knowledge, self-friendship, are achieved, in part, by spending time alone.

If we can just spend time getting to know our selves, time doing less and inviting the thoughts that emerge out of solitude into our consciousness, time relaxing more, how much less waste would there be in our lives?

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Journaling Questions:

Do you make time for solitude, for quiet contemplation? No phone, no TV, no computer, no radio. Time alone in nature, time walking along the beach, time thinking, journaling, meditating.

If solitude and silence are not part of your spiritual practice and your relationship with yourself, what elements of your life would you have to rearrange to accomplish that? 

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For further reading on silence and solitude and their relationship to friendship with oneself, visit here on the Heron Dance website.