“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.” ~Henry David Thoreau

You don’t need to be a monk to find solitude, nor do you need to be a hermit to enjoy it.

Solitude is a lost art in these days of ultra-connectedness, and while I don’t bemoan the beauty of this global community, I do think there’s a need to step back from it on a regular basis.

Some of my favorite activities include sitting in front of the ocean, still, contemplating … walking, alone with my thoughts … disconnecting and just writing … finding quiet with a good novel … taking a solitary bath.

Don’t get me wrong: I love being with loved ones, and walking with a friend or watching the sunset with my wife or reading a book with my child are also among my absolute favorite things in the world.

But solitude, in these days as much as ever, is an absolute necessity.

The Benefits of Solitude

The best art is created in solitude, for good reason: it’s only when we are alone that we can reach into ourselves and find truth, beauty, soul. Some of the most famous philosophers took daily walks, and it was on these walks that they found their deepest thoughts.

My best writing, and in fact the best of anything I’ve done, was created in solitude.

Just a few of the benefits I’ve found from solitude:

• time for thought
• in being alone, we get to know ourselves
• we face our demons, and deal with them
• space to create
• space to unwind, and find peace
• time to reflect on what we’ve done, and learn from it
• isolation from the influences of other helps us to find our own voice
• quiet helps us to appreciate the smaller things that get lost in the roar

There are many more benefits, but that’s to get you started. The real benefits of solitude cannot be expressed through words, but must be found in doing.

How to Find Solitude

You start by disconnecting.

Take every means of connecting with others, and sever them. Disconnect from email, from Facebook and Twitter and MySpace, from forums and social media, from instant messaging and Skype, from news websites and blogs. Turn off your mobile device and phones.

Turn off the computer … unless you’re going to use the computer to create, in which case, shut off the Internet, close your browser, and shut down every other program used to connect with others.

The next steps depend on which of two strategies you use:

1. Holing yourself up. This can be done in your office, by shutting the door and/or using headphones and the calming music of your choice. If possible, let coworkers know you can’t be disturbed during a certain block of your day. Or it can be done at home, by finding a quiet space, shutting the door if you can, or using headphones. The key is to find a way to shut out the outside world, including co-workers or those who live with you.

2. Getting away. My favorite way to find solitude, actually. Get out the door, and enjoy the outdoors. Take a walk, find a park or a beach or a mountain, find a quiet coffee shop, find a shady spot to rest. People watch, or nature watch.

Other tips:

• Try taking a quiet, relaxing bath from time to time.
• Curl up with a good novel.
• If you’re married with kids, ask your spouse to give you some time off to be alone, and then return the favor. Make it a regular swap.
• Take a walk every day.
• Get into work earlier, and work in quiet.
• Have a nice cup of tea.
• Try a regular time each day when you’re disconnected.
• Consider limiting the stream.
• Trouble with self-control? Use one of these tools.
• No time for solitude? Try these tips.
• Try sitting still, and focusing on your breath as it comes in and goes out. As your mind wanders to thoughts of the past and future, make a patient note of that, then gently return to your breathing.

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” ~Albert Einstein

Leo Babauta is the creator of Zen Habits. He is married with six kids, lives in San Francisco, and is a writer, runner and a vegan.

Editor’s Note: “The Lost Art of Solitude” originally appeared in Zen Habits.

Coral Beach, Grand Bahama Island

Early one Sunday morning in the early 1980′s, I was running up a steep hill on the Bahamian island of New Providence, in an area downtown, near the elegant Governor General’s house.  It was a beautiful day in mid-January and cool enough to be able to run at 10 am.  Along with forty or so members of a for-fun running club, I was racing along, intent on finding a trail laid out using flour.

To my left, was an old, gray, stone church.  On the outside of the structure, were white, slatted windows that swung out and were held in place by support rods.  As I pounded up and over the arc of the hill, I suddenly heard the refrain of a hymn carried by the breeze. It was unexpected and sung with such force, it flooded my senses, instantly carrying me to a place I seemed to recognize but had not visited for a long, long time.  In that moment, my legs wobbled beneath me, my heart opened and I began to cry, wondering why the hymn would move me so and what this could mean.

In the Sufi tradition, a moment like this is called, “Dhikr,” the chanting or singing of Divine names in order to initiate remembrance of God.  It is the practice of venturing away from worldly focus toward the inner call of the soul.  Although I did not realize it at the time, the power of the congregants singing was a beautiful gift which invited a ‘turning of the heart’ toward God. It was here, in this profound moment that my spiritual journey began.

Looking back, I came to understand that this moment marked the opening of an inner doorway that could never be closed again.  After that, my life suddenly began to take odd twists and turns until I was brought into the company of an Enlightened Master who gave Shaktipat initiation, the awakening of the spiritual energy.

Since then, there have been continuous turnings and openings of the heart which have had a three-fold effect: one an awakening to the awareness of the ‘Consciousness of Oneness’, two a deepening desire to do the inner work and three, a willingness to support and encourage others on their own inner journey.

Thich Nhat Hahn expresses this beautifully when he writes:

“You are me and I am you.

It is obvious that we are inter-are.

You cultivate the flower in yourself so that I will be beautiful.

I transform the garbage in my-self so that you do not have to suffer.

I support you, you support me.

I am here to bring you peace.

You are here to bring me joy.”

Knowing that we ‘inter-are’, there are simple Self Inquiry questions we can contemplate to connect us back to the heart, and back to the Truth of Oneness.  Here are a selection:

1.  Am I working with the energy of the heart or against it?

2.  Am I trusting the wisdom of the heart?  If not, why not?

3.  What inspires me and opens my heart?

4.  In this moment, how can I encourage and uplift my-self and others?

As you contemplate these questions, my wish for you is to continue to have the courage to do the inner work.  This work is the doorway to moving completely into Unity Consciousness.  It is deeply transformational and can grace each of us with the gift of being able to express the beauty and light of our hearts.  Then, we are able to uplift, inspire and encourage everyone and everything in our world.

A natural intuitive, writer, artist and transpersonal hypnotherapist, Julie works internationally offering a transformational ‘Living in Alignment’ online course and shares the details of a powerful and life-changing spiritual awakening in her book: An Awakened Life- A Journey of Transformation.  For details go to: An Awakened Life, Living in Alignment, and True Alignment.

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly,

our whole life would change.

– Buddha

We are only kidding ourselves
When we say the wind carries secrets
For we know as surely as the sparrows
That sand was once stone
And that leaves fall from trees
Only to bare them for ice.
We know with the certainty of voles
That beneath the sprawling oaks
Lie roots as gnarled and knotted
As the loves and enmities
Of our buried ancestors.

But still we grope and claw
With stick and fork and knife
Through damask of our own making
Into dark rooms where candles once burned
And we try to make meaning
From wax beads dripped carelessly
On smooth mute tables
All the while deaf and blind
To the calligraphy humming
In a single blade of grass
Just outside the door.

Kate Hutchinson teaches English and is Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator at a large suburban high school near Chicago.  Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in several journals and collections, most recently The Sow’s Ear, Cloudbank, and two of the Cup of Comfort collections.  Editor’s note:  “We Know” originally appeared in Mosaic, literary journal of National-Louis University, Chicago, June 2008.

“When you know that you are an inseparable part of the field of all possibilities, you can easily fulfill your desires. You no longer worry about money–getting it, losing it, or not having enough–because you know the supply is inexhaustible.

This understanding is the source of all abundance.”   ~  Deepak Chopra

Does this feel as timely for you as it did for me?

What do I ache for?

Do I dare to dream of meeting my heart’s longing?

And so on…

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Breaking through it is not the difficult part.  The greatest challenge is in continuing toward it in the face of fear, taking action in spite of it.

What elicits fear in you today?

Continue on, courageous souls, and you will understand the power of transforming fear into growth.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Life is a spiritual path.  You may have heard people describing how they began their spiritual path, or found a spiritual path, but in reality, they’ve been on that path all along.

You cannot be on any other path except that of spirit, for, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin noted, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Who is more spiritual?  A devoted monk or a successful businesswoman?  A member of the clergy or a wilderness teacher?  ”Spiritual” is not something you do, it is something you are.  And we are all spiritual beings, regardless of the occupation in which we work or the belief system we’ve chosen.  We are always on a spiritual path.