Spending time in isolation? Is it helpful?
Definitely, a powerful way of bringing clarity in our life is to spend time alone. We are too caught into existence. Into our life circumstances, attachments, desires, motives that keep up our mind busy all the time.
It is like that we are driving a car always with the foot on the accelerator, and never taking some rest to actually decide where we want to go.
It could be quite painful to realize that up to a certain moment, we were functioning on a “stupid” autopilot mode, reacting to life rather than making conscious decisions.
This is because a good part of our energy is invested in what we perceive through our senses, giving very little importance to our inner dimension.
We might have stumbled across the same obstacles and problems in our life several times, never learning actually a lesson out of that experience. So life put us again into that experience, but we were not capable to learn how to deal with it and improve our inner response.
Taking time alone is one of the scariest things for many human beings because people are afraid of not doing, of inactivity, ultimately of death. Filling up our time with something to do is something that we all do, to keep us busy and entertained.
What about exploring that space that we are trying to fill up with things? What is in there?
We pick up our phone and check up Facebook or Instagram as an automatic movement to try to escape the present moment. But what are we really trying to escape from?
We are trying to give a meaning to life, that ultimately does not have. We are trying to fill up our lives with goals and ambitions because those things keep us busy and give us an illusory sense for our senseless existence.
We are ultimately living through the lens of ideas and preconceptions that day by day we create, that ultimately try to define who we are. And this is the reason why we are afraid to take some time in isolation: because we are afraid of being nothing.
One of the biggest fear of your ego, which means our personal identities and its internal processes, mental and emotional, it is actually to disappear. When we take time by ourselves without trying to fill it with the senseless activity we are exposing ourselves to the fear of being nothing, of not having meaning, of not participating into the productive activity of the world.
But how can we create conscious things into the world if our actions, thoughts, emotions are completely out of control and run by fear, projections, illusions, and a wrong understanding of ourselves?
Spending time alone is a key element to go back to the zero level and forget for a little time the temporary role that we are playing into the universe, in our society, in our family. Doing that can make us aware that we are not really that important, and that the circumstances that we are living are temporary as it is our identity, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and so on.
Bringing a time of isolation in your daily routine helps us to give space to our inner dimension, something that is not looked after enough, especially, in our modern times where we are so bombarded by stimulus and stupidity.
One form of including this time in our routine could be doing some form of meditation, walking in nature, do something that absorbs our attention completely, sitting and watching a beautiful landscape, or listening to a nice piece of music.
But one thing is very important!
To avoid being absorbed by the experiences, beliefs, images, which ultimately means from the external world, the key factor is to actually observe our experiences and let them go.
For example, if you practice meditation do not be absorbed with that spiritual rubbish and beliefs that otherwise will create new ideas in your mind. We are trying to get to a zero point.
Simply observe. Although you might be using some of them, actually check in always how you feel, do not build with your imagination on something. See how you feel inside all the time. Observe your internal processes.
If you go for a walk in nature resist the temptation of giving a name to any flower or tree you see, walk into nature totally ignorant and stay with that. Walk, look with no judgment, focus on your inner movement, and let it go.
If you paint or do something that absorbs yourself completely, do that focusing on the sensations and let them go second after second, do not focus on the painter, that does not really exist. Encounter a way to be out of time, out of your mind, like if you're having love and you just watch the whole process. Kill your self-importance. Just focus on the act, not on the actor.
Watching the sky, the sea could also be other ways to spend some valuable time in isolation because they help you empty the mind and connect you with a dimension of spaciousness within you, without concepts or ideas. Die to that experience, fully!
Put some classical music on or ambient stuff that does not drag too much attention. Nowadays the creative expression has become so aggressive that is very difficult to encounter a piece of music that gives you some space and that has a good dose of silence into it. Use music as a tool to bring quietness into your mind.
Summarizing, time alone is the best way to reorganize your life and help you make conscious decisions about what is really important for you. It is a way to subtract yourself from the external world and give more space to your inner dimension. It is also a great way to discover a state of stillness and quality of your mind that can ultimately be integrated and used even when you are doing activities and taking life choices.
