Bill Gates is known for his solitary “think weeks.” The painter Georgia O’Keeffe often spent days alone walking and working at her ranch in New Mexico. And the poet Emily Dickinson wrote often about the revelations that can come from time spent in solitude.
How choosing solitude can free your mind and lift your mood
Being alone is not the same thing as being lonely. In fact, it’s associated with positive feelings.
7 min
By Jamie Friedlander Serrano
“Solitude gives your brain the chance to reset and restore,” says Robert Coplan, a developmental psychologist and professor in the psychology department at Carleton University in Ottawa. “It’s a good place for creative endeavors because it lets our mind wander. Solitude tends to make us feel calmer because it takes the edge off of negative emotions. It’s freedom from all of that social input. You’re free to do what you want, think what you want and be who you want.”
Solitude isn’t loneliness
There’s a difference between loneliness and simply being by oneself. “That’s a really important point: Being alone is not being lonely,” says Kira Birditt, a research professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
That’s not to say loneliness isn’t a problem: Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory on loneliness, suggesting that it posed a public health threat as significant as smoking and obesity.
But you can be alone and not feel lonely, or you can be with others and feel lonely. “Loneliness really refers to perceived social inadequacy of relationships,” says Julie Bowker, a developmental psychologist and professor in the department of psychology at the University of Buffalo who has studied solitude.
