Alone Time
How much time do you dedicate to spending alone? Is it something you’ve seen the value in?
This week was full of eclipse energy and I felt it- hard. Anyone else?! I just felt off, and extremely tired and low energy… and irritable at times. A deeper emphasis on self care was needed to get through it. And frankly, there were some days I think everyone was better off not being in my presence, and vice versa LOL. I listened to my intuition, and prioritized what felt best for me. That meant less work where I could delay things, more time reading, meditating, journaling, being outside, and being introspective. For all the time I spent alone, Friday I was then on a bender of being surrounded by people and outside energy. I had this aha moment the following morning, when I woke up exhausted and feeling out of sorts. When we're around people all the time, which many of us are depending on family and work situations, we can easily get lost in the energy all around us. We can actually lose sight of what's our energy, what's our "stuff," and what is someone else's. This is especially true if you're highly sensitive and/or an empath. We pick up what's around us, and can't differentiate what's ours. The only way to know what's ours, is a level of deep self awareness. A feeling of deep inner knowing and intuition. And I think that can only come from spending enough time alone with yourself.
Because I had spent a lot of time alone last week, it was so clear to me that the feelings I woke up with Saturday were a result of outside energy that wasn't my own. This is a really helpful distinction to be able to make, in order to come back to yourself. There are times in life (I'm going to go ahead and put eclipses in here lol) where you really only have the capacity to deal with your own current state of affairs. There isn't room to take on anything outside yourself. And I don't think we need to judge ourselves too harshly when that happens. I think just being aware and acknowledging it, and then figuring out how we carve out more alone time to nurture ourselves and our own feelings is the best solution.
If you're an extrovert with a very strong sense of self and impeccable boundaries, you might be less prone to succumbing to other people's energies. But, you may still be prone to focusing too much on outside opinion vs. your own. Outsourcing areas of your life where it's an inside job. Asking too many people their opinion on a situation you are the decider of. I went to a tarot card reading on Friday, and this idea was put to the test. In the past, I would have taken every tarot card, every piece of information the tarot card reader put in front of me, to heart. I wouldn't have questioned it, I wouldn't have been overly discerning. I would have taken it as fact. I would have thought that the tarot card reader is the expert, not me. Today, I know myself better. I trust myself more. So during my reading, I was able to truly separate what resonated, what I felt in my intuition to be true for me, and what wasn't. Anything that didn't resonate? I let it roll off my back. I didn't overanalyze it, didn't try to make it true, didn't try to make it anything it wasn't. I just took in the information, and just focused on enjoying the experience. I was really proud of myself for the amount of growth I've experienced. I felt like in many ways the tarot card reading was sort of a test on my journey. Of whether I will continue to stay true to myself, my own intuition, and honor that vs. the opinion of someone, anyone, else. I think the only reason I passed this little test is because over the past ~10 years, I've spent increasingly more time alone. It's allowed me to get to know myself on a deeper level, without the noise. The noise was clouding my own sense of self.
The reality is that we live in a world where community and connection is necessary, and invaluable. But I don't think we focus a lot on the idea of being alone and the value it can bring. How it can recharge us and connect us deeper to ourselves. I think it's a concept that has largely been labeled as something only introverts require. But I'm here to disagree. I think we all need time to ourselves. To get to know ourselves and create our own sense of identity, that only we can fully understand. That only we can fully define. I think it's also normal to go through ebbs and flows. Times where we feel the need to be more connected, and times where we feel the need (like eclipse season) to hibernate a little. And when we do hibernate, it becomes easier and easier to decipher when we're with others what is coming from them, vs. what's coming from us.
If alone time isn't something you prioritize in your day to day, maybe this week you could give it a whirl. See if it adds some space to your life and brings some peace that may be missing.
XO
P.s. time with animals OBVI doesn't count ;)
