When it comes to being alone, everyone is different. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and some utilize those more than others and in different way than others.
Personally, alone time is extremely valuable to me. I’m the type of girl to go out to dinner by myself, lay in bed all day alone, go to the library and study alone, the list goes on and on. For me, being alone allows me to reflect, something that has been very important for me to do during my college years.
Even for me, an “alone-type” person, appreciating your alone time is a learned attribute. When you’re with someone for so long, you begin to rely on them. You rely on their company, their humor, their listening skills, their peers, their support. You never really know how much you rely on them until they aren’t there anymore.
This is the same for friendships. Suddenly the friendship ends, and you’re left alone. So what now?
Like I said, I had to learn to love my alone time on even the hardest of nights. Friday nights aren’t the easist times to be by yourself, but sometimes it truly is necessary. Being alone has allowed me to become closer with God, to take a break from the friends that I truly love so dearly but that sometimes don’t understand me. It allows me to talk about my feelings outloud with only my walls and the Lord listening, to cry, to laugh, to think about the past day, week, or month that has flown by. Being alone lets me rememeber the feelings I felt in a particular situation, and learn from those feelings.
Truly, being alone has taught me so much about myself. By vauling my alone time, and adding it into my schedule, I am seemingly allowing myself to take a break from the rest of the world and all that it is throwing at me, because it is ALWAYS throwing something at me.
I have taught myself to change the way I view people, situations, conflicts, jealousy, embarrassment, leadership, mistakes, and various other things just by giving my mind time to process these things. I have talked to God and told him my struggles as if he doesn’t already know. I have talked things over, cried about them, and then decided to let them go.
I have learned to love and appreciate myself and my accomplishments more than ever before. I have congratulated myself on overcoming things that I once thought would stop me from succeeding. I have grown. I have become strong. And that is a learned trait.
Being alone and allowing yourself to reflect allows your inner resilient self to come out and do its job on a daily basis.