As Garbo Said "I Vant To Be Alone"

Between my daily life of commuting 1.50 hours, handling 570 employee requests and demands, fielding work and personal email, sending and responding to text as well as phone calls, returning home to make dinner and assess family situations as well as laundry, watching the boob tube for my favorite fashion shows, then spending time with my boyfriend on the weekend, there are times when I simply crave solitude.  I yearn for a few hours of quiet, of spending my time handling mundane tasks that may simply include painting my nails, reading a magazine, zoning out to my thoughts, or even having a few one-on-one conversations with God.

According to an article, The Power of Solitude, new research suggests that we remember information better when we go it alone. Even as subjects in this study sat back to back unable to see one another, the mere suggestion that the other person was performing the same task was enough to diminish recall. The researchers explain that we’re inherently “distracted” and “’multitasking’” in the presence of others – attuned to their responses as well as the task at hand.  (Maybe this explains why I can be so creatively energized or eager to organize when I am alone with simply my thoughts to keep me company.)

In a world gone wild for wikis and interdisciplinary collaboration, those who prefer solitude and private noodling are seen as eccentric at best and defective at worst, and are often presumed to be suffering from social anxiety, boredom, and alienation.  But an emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone, if done right, can be good for us — that certain tasks and thought processes are best carried out without anyone else around, and that even the most socially motivated among us should regularly be taking time to ourselves if we want to have fully developed personalities, and be capable of focus and creative thinking.

There is even research to suggest that blocking off enough alone time is an important component of a well-functioning social life — that if we want to get the most out of the time we spend with people, we should make sure we’re spending enough of it away from them. Just as regular exercise and healthy eating make our minds and bodies work better, solitude experts say, so can being alone.

We use alone time to process our relationships and recalibrate our sense of self. Solitude confirms that we’re more than the sum of our reactions to other people and encounters. In solitude, we return to center.  Solitude reminds us of what is essential to our identities. It inspires deeper deliberation and allows for the perception of more subtle sentiment. It gives us the chance to take inventory and hear the messages that fill our day. In doing so, we can hone in on what is vital to our well-being and what we will take with us to return to the world.

If it means I'm an eccentric or social misfit, I'll take it.  Sometimes a girl just needs a few hours of solitude for an inner lift as well as to make her able to tackle her world!