A Brief Guide To Deal With The Inner Chaos.
I have a question for you.
Ever felt your mind rotting away as you sit in front of your computer screen binge-watching the latest Netflix series?
Or ever felt lonely in a crowd?
What’s this feeling all about?
Let me explain.
It’s the feeling of mental stagnation that comes from the continuous engagement of your mind to pleasures of the lowest self of the human aspect.
What Is The Problem?
Scratching the surface of the problem; You must know that the 21st-century economy is mostly attention-based.
The more attention you gather, the more successful you are, and thus more money you make. In this war of attention-seeking, the exploitation of Freud’s study of psychoanalysis, social engineering should be of no surprise to us.
You and I are the middlemen, the consumers who fall victim to such war and almost lose our minds and souls by feeding it with a dangerous amount of pleasure and stimulation.
The Roots Of Our Problem
It is evident that human beings are social creatures that have always loved to be in groups and interact with their surroundings.
Now, it is true that interpersonal relations with other human beings are a means to developing one’s character and personality, but, overlooking the importance of solitude and self-realization in this process creates an imbalance in one’s psyche.
We become overly compliant in relationships due to the fear of abandonment and loneliness and thus, develop a false self i.e. our personality becomes a reflex of how others want us to be.
Is it true or not?
The only escape that I find from this exploitation, to gain back one’s mind and soul, is the practice of solitude i.e. the state of being alone without feeling lonely.
Friedrich Nietzsche, the German Philosopher beautifully says in his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra,
“ One man runs to his neighbor because he is looking for himself, and others because he wants to lose himself. Your bad love of yourself makes solitude a prisoner to you”.
This false self can only be broken down by the capacity to be alone with one’s thoughts which develops our own identity and a sense of belonging.
But men, in general, fear solitude because the fear of solitude is ultimately the fear of oneself.
As French author, Andre Gide writes —
“ The fear of finding oneself alone — that is what they fear and so they don’t find themselves at all’’
What Is The Solution?
We must be always cautious of the fact that in our daily work and interaction, our social persona comes to play, and we keep aside the frightening thoughts and emotions at the brink of our psyche, which gradually grows in the unconscious mind making you more miserable and distracted.
As a result, we lose our solitude to others and become a crippled version of ourselves. This is the reason why solitude must be an integral part of our daily lives.
In solitude, we ponder, retrospect, and explore our inner selves.
We come across our fairly darker side of emotions and thoughts that were left untouched and unexplored before thereby finding the thorns and barbs inside our rug that were discomforting us for so long.
“Solitude for the mind is as essential as food is for the body”
writes Russian Novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
In solitude, we can forge our character away from the constricting external demands of others and thus, can obtain our true self.
How To Practice Solitude Then?
One of the most effective ways of practicing solitude for beginners is to sit for half an hour at least daily at a place away from external disturbances doing nothing but observing your thought and the nature around you.
After a week or so you’ll notice subtle ease and flow in your thought process and an increased sense of spirituality.
Now, the sad part of this journey is that most of us after learning so much about the benefits and effectiveness of solitude in treating the spiritual sickness will eventually return to our former crippled self and thus would lose ourselves again.
So I advise you and me to not be from among these people and embark on the journey of solitude to know yourselves better.
What is your opinion on practicing solitude?
Do you agree with the root causes of the internal chaos discussed above?
Leave a comment if you’ll practice solitude from now on.
About The Author
Hello readers! I am Moiz, the co-founder, and writer at Nobles.
I love seeking knowledge; I believe that reading books can help us engage in life-long learning. My Prime hobbies are Reading, Writing, and Introspecting while Walking.
Hope you enjoyed reading the article.
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