try being alone

For some, this may come rather easily, but for others, this can be very challenging: to spend time alone. And yet, If we cannot be content in our own company, then there is a clear indication that there is work to be done within ourself.

Somewhere deep inside most of us, there is a feeling of something unacceptable in oneself, something wrong about oneself, something lacking, or something bad. Such demons must be faced if we are to progress on this spiritual journey. For it is a journey to the centre of our being. And these inner demons are what we're afraid of most. They keep us from ourself, our true self. And to face them, we must spend time alone, undistracted by the company of others; without entertainment to escape from ourself.

So try to spend some time alone, some length of time – a day or more, a few days – without human interaction; if possible without seeing any other human being. And cut yourself off totally. Make it your solitary retreat. Go somewhere away from other people. And take no telephone with you.

Do not entertain yourself during these days, with television or radio or even newspapers or books. These communications are also carrying the energy of other people. We are meeting people, in a strange cutoff sort of way, with such things. Leave it all behind. Take just yourself away somewhere quiet. And sit with yourself, not trying to fill your days with activity and entertainment, but being quiet and still.

This will give a chance for anything inside you that has been hiding or suppressed to come up into your awareness. Face it all. There are secrets hidden deep within us. And time alone can help these secrets to come out into the open and show themselves.

So spend some time alone, once in a while. And really allow yourself to bring all your energy inwards; your awareness into your body and into your feelings, your emotions; and all the unusual thoughts that begin to come up into your mind during such time alone.

Eventually, we can come to be so content in our own being that we are not in need of other people, psychologically, as once we were. And from this space of wholeness we can relate to other people in a much more healthy way: without neediness; without clinging or attachment; without possessiveness. All these dependencies arise because we do not feel whole within ourself. To find that wholeness, we need, from time to time, to be alone.

So try it: try being alone.