Learn to enjoy your own company. You are the one person you can count on living with for the rest of your life.
ANN RICHARDS
The first thing to establish about spending time with yourself is the fact that you are not being left alone, you are choosing to be alone. It is your choice, nobody is leaving you behind, it does not mean you are completely alone and have nobody! It just means you are making a decision to spend the night with yourself and enjoy your own company, and gather your thoughts! And that is a completely fine thing to do!
Enjoying your own company is an art, which can be mastered by everyone, in their own ways. It is scary when you think about, doing things you usually do with a group of people, but now it is only you! You feel anxious and awkward to do anything! But that is normal, and bound to happen in this uplifting and marvelous journey of self-reflection!
“Learn to be alone and to like it. There is nothing more freeing and empowering than learning to like your own company.”
– Mandy Hale –
Being comfortable with your own company is more than a night-in, ordering food out, watching tv, and having a nice, long bath! While that is pleasant, truly being comfortable with your own self means putting yourself in situations where you would be with other people, and enjoying alone time. Such as eating alone at a new restaurant, watching a movie alone, and even better, traveling alone. In this way, you have a chance to understand what you like and don’t like and what you want from your life.
If you are still thinking about why to do this, these are some benefits from enjoying your company:
1. You boost up your productivity!
2. Being in your own company, can help inspire you and become more creative!
3. Solitude can help strenghten your mental health!
4. Gives you an opportunity to think about what you want to do right now, rather than in the future!
5. You become even more self-confident, and trusting yourself and enjoying your company means no more depending on others to make you happy!
Once you have gotten to the point, where you are happy by yourself making plans, it becomes easier for you to enjoy life with your friends. When you find yourself and do not depend too much on others to make you happy, you grab ahold of your own happiness and you are able to look at life from a much different perspective. Being alone, doing things you love alone, allows you and gives you the time to really appreciate the small moments that make you happy!
Here are some tips and ideas on what to do, when you go by yourself outside:
- Watch a new movie by yourself
- Go to a new restaurant and order a luxurious meal for yourself
- Go and watch a play at a theatre
- Go explore a new park in your city
- Go to an art class and paint
- Buy ingredients from a different grocery store and cook a dish from a cuisine you have never had before!
- Cycle around your town, exploring the city before you get tired
- Got to a meditation class or a yoga class
Those who are able to have fun by themselves are not ‘shy’ or ‘introverted’, but they are simply brave and enjoying their life to the fullest! They are making themselves happy! Once you are able to adopt this, your life will never be the same!
“But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
BELL HOOKS
The Nice Things In Life 