Solitude – The Glory of Being Alone

“Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of being alone. It has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.” ~ The Eternal Now, Paul Tillich

Even though the distinction between solitude and loneliness has been clearly established, our dictionaries refer to solitude as isolation, a state of being or living alone. Solitude emphasizes the quality of being or feeling lonely and deserted: to live in solitude. Isolation may mean merely a detachment and separation from others: to be put in isolation with an infectious disease.

There seems to be no mention of solitude as the “glory of being alone”. I believe our society, for the most part, views solitude as something to be avoided, something that can actually be dangerous. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We are much better served by the wisdom expressed by poets and philosophers.
I leave you to contemplate a few powerful findings on solitude by some great minds.

“Like the daffodils swaying in the air, making the scene heavenly through imagination, the bliss of solitude is also something like that.” ~ William Wordsworth

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne

Since ancient times solitude was always sought as a way to meditation, contemplation and as a means to attain self realization. These practices were reserved for only a few.
Nowadays, despite the flourishing of yoga and meditation all over the world, it is clear that many still find no easy way into solitude.

The Corona pandemic is a call to solitude. A worldwide call, like we have never experienced before, and many aren’t ready to glow in the light of solitude.

In our incrementally busy society we are constantly called to become busier and more productive. We rarely have time to sit with ourselves and listen.
And then solitude burst, uninvited, into our lives.
No work, no people to see, no talking to do, no place to hide. Many of the distractions that can keep us away from ourselves were suddenly taken away.
We must learn how to love solitude, lest we miss the opportunity to find ourselves.

Solitude demands a relationship with the unknown. A relationship with the facets of ourselves that have been kept quiet or altogether silent.
What innate and unique wisdom is trapped inside of you?
A dream that wants to fly, a song that wishes to be heard.

Throughout the ages, the wise invited us to go within and listen.
The phrase, “Know thyself”, was a maxim inscribed on the frontispiece of the Temple of Delphi.
Socrates further illuminates: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom” and this wisdom reveals the truth of who you are.

The intelligently designed and amazingly transformative Soul Coaching® 28 Day Program also has a maxim: “The Soul Loves the Truth.”  During 28 days you are called to wisely question and contemplate your life and the essence of who you are.
This rewarding work can’t be successfully accomplished without a certain amount of solitude.
So, despite the manifold challenges we currently face we have golden tools at our disposal. Soul Coaching® is one of them.

Use this unprecedented time to search within. Do not be afraid of stepping into solitude, it will only reveal the gems that make you a treasure. At this most crucial crossroads in humankind’s evolutionary path, the world desperately needs the whole of you and what makes you holy.

The glorious Hermann Hesse confided: “We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”

To willingly enter solitude is a call to the brave of heart; a call to sit with the fullness of being; an excavation into the dungeons of your within. Once you step into this sacred ground there is no distraction or escape.
You are fully there, fully immersed in complete awareness witnessing the spiraling of ancient and new thoughts and memories.
The beauty of being and the angst of living echo everywhere.
It all radiates in the darkness of a starless sky.
It all merges in harmonious illumination.
In Solitude… all is you.