As it’s enjoyable to spend time with people and make memories, there are superior benefits to spending time alone. Of course being connected to people is important for your happiness and well-being, but it’s also explanatory to balance social time with time spent alone. It’s important to use this time to think about your thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, hopes, problems, and all of your experiences.

The period of time spent alone creates space for you to come up with your own perspective and helps explore ideas and how you think and feel about the things that are happening in your life and relationships. Before I get to the countless benefits of spending time alone, I will share about my personal experiences.

It all started when I was in a  pandemic. Because of the coronavirus, I was put into a situation where I couldn’t go outside. Seventh grade was cut short for me, so during that time and eighth grade, I took online school. Being under lockdown at home made me feel bored and sad because I didn’t get a chance to see people. I missed seeing my family and friends. I ended up being stuck at home, stayed in my room a lot, and that barely made me go outside. 

At this point in my life, I developed independence. I started to enjoy spending time alone. I would occupy my time with baking, painting, reading, cleaning, organizing, listening to music, watching movies and journaling. This has allowed me to give myself a chance to use my imagination, daydream and learn about my thoughts, feelings and emotions. This became therapeutic to me in a way that it helped me relax and feel better.  

One of the greatest benefits of spending time alone is how it helps you develop a better understanding of who you are. The more you know and understand yourself the more likely you are to do things that you love, learn things that interest you and spend time with people who you feel happy with. 

Knowing yourself also helps you build confidence to help guide you through all types of situations. The more you get to know yourself the more you’ll like and accept yourself.

Having a problem in your life? Of course it’s helpful to get advice from friends and family, but it’s also important to develop your own thoughts and solutions to problems. Being alone limits distractions and helps you think up your own answers. 

Another thing you can do alone is let your imagination go far because there will be no judgment. You can test things out, try and fail again, when you are by yourself and when others aren’t there to influence you. 

When you are alone you are free to try things that you might feel uncomfortable trying for the first time in front of other people. Being alone leaves you free of judgment! You can try new things without being nervous of what others might think. 

If we spend a lot of our time with people, we always have to be on mode: social.  Time spent alone is a great way to recharge and slow down for a bit. This also makes being with others more enjoyable since we’ve had time to rest and can be more relaxed. You’ll feel better when you’ve had time to reboot and people will probably find you more fun and nice to be around too. 

Plain and simple you get more things done when you are alone. Do you have a lot of things on your plate? When you limit distractions you can, more easily, check things off your to-do list. When you get your important personal responsibilities accomplished alone, you have more attention to give during group assignments and tasks. You will be more present with others if you have spent some time alone getting things done. 

You get time out of your day to do whatever you want. Whether you’re cleaning, reading,  listening to music, or whatever it is, you can express yourself and discover more about yourself. 

Having time off from people has helped me heal. In a way that I can take a step away from my eventful life. I got to explore more about myself, I have learned what I like, what makes me happy, and what influences me in a positive way. I hope to show an amazing  perspective on spending time with yourself.