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I recently finished reading Breath, The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor and the information has been a revelation to me. I've always wondered how other people can be "in to" meditating and now, after learning the proper breathing techniques, it's become clear to me. Starting off each day with a brief meditation and breathing session works wonders for preparing my mental and physical state for the day. So I suppose it's no surprise research has found that spending just 15 minutes in reflective solitude really helps your mood and your mind:
Spending time alone can induce fear in a lot of people, which is understandable. At the same time, the difference between moments of solitude and loneliness is often misunderstood. As a psychologist, I study solitude – the time we spend alone, not interacting with other people. I started this research more than ten years ago and, up to that point, findings on young people's time alone had suggested they often experience low moods when alone.
On social media, television or in the music we listen to, we typically picture happiness as excitement, enthusiasm and energisation. From that perspective, solitude is often mistaken for loneliness. In psychology, researchers define loneliness as a distressed feeling that we experience when we don't have, or are unable to get, the kind of social connections or relationships we hope for. Solitude is different.
[...] What can we gain from solitude? In a series of experiments, I brought undergraduate students into a room to sit quietly with themselves. In some studies, I took away the students' backpacks and devices and asked them to sit with their thoughts; at other times, the students stayed in the room with books or their phones.
After just 15 minutes of solitude, I found that any strong emotions the participants might have been feeling, such as anxiety or excitement, dropped. I concluded that solitude has the capacity to bring down people's arousal levels, meaning it can be useful in situations where we feel frustrated, agitated or angry.
[...] To overcome our fear of solitude, we need to recognize its benefits and see it as a positive choice – not something that happens to us. While taking a solo trip might be a bit much for you right now, taking time out of your busy schedule for small doses of solitude might well be just what you need.
Journal References:
- Experiential correlates of time alone in adolescence - Reed Larson, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi -- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1978.tb00191.x
- Loneliness: A Theoretical Review with Implications for Measurement - Carol Marangoni, William Ickes -- https://doi.org/10.1177/026540758900600107
- Solitude as an Approach to Affective Self-Regulation - Thuy-vy T. Nguyen, Richard M. Ryan, and Edward L. Deci -- https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217733073
Related: The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday April 30, @01:21AM (7 children)
If 15 minutes are that good, imagine what 24 hours can do.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30, @02:20AM (2 children)
I was imagining solitary confinement.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday April 30, @02:28AM (1 child)
This doesn't sound like punishment to me, given I often spend weeks or months without speaking to another live human.
You lot on the other side of the electrons don't count.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by coolgopher on Sunday April 30, @11:30AM
Besides, pretty soon we won't even know if it's a human or a language model we're interacting with online.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30, @07:26AM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday April 30, @08:53AM (2 children)
A vampire bricked into a wall?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 30, @10:37AM (1 child)
I guess if the Earth doesn't get fully destroyed by the Sun you could still walk around on it in the dark.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by turgid on Monday May 01, @09:56AM
Imagine being still around for months and years with some terribly painful, debilitating incurable disease for which the treatment could barely mask the pain, and being completely dependent on others to eat, drink, wash and use the toilet. Imagine not being able to do anything but exist until the bitter end.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].