The Power of Solitude

When you can bear your own silence, you are free!
(Mooji)

I remember meeting a former colleague around the time when I left the firm we had both worked for. She had left the firm years before me and had decided to be a stay-home mom instead. I told her about my plan to become an author and spiritual coach and she responded, “I hope that you are ready for solitude”. It seemed such an innocent remark at the time, but for some reason it left a mark on me. How right she turned out to be! While I had often complained about the stress in my old job, I also realize these days that I had enjoyed hanging out with the many friends and occasional ‘foe’. Each and everyone had a spiritual message for me in store. My professional life was the place where I discovered the workings of ‘the Way’. For years, my work in the stressful financial industry was my creative playground for discovering spiritual insights. It gave me something to write about every day. In hindsight, it was as if I was riding other people’s energies like a surfer, lifted by their energies without getting wet; well, mostly.

How different everything was when I was at home. Somehow in solitude, I was missing the magic of the Way. I had to find the peace of mind and spiritual insights inside of me. I discovered more restlessness and sadness than I would have expected. In hindsight, it was really the high powered working environment that had distracted me from what was hidden within and gave me that outlet to ride other people’s energies. It seemed like a new chapter in my spiritual journey opened up in this year. Reading Suzanne Yang’s note on her childhood memories spent in solitude made me understand what power really lies within:

I have so many memories of being alone. The earliest memory of being alone was when I was a very young little girl. I was alone at home in a cold winter day. It was dark. The room was very dark and quiet. No one was around but myself. I could hear the tick-tock sound of the clock. I could hear the train afar. I could also hear the airplanes passing by. The most amazing part, I could almost hear the very deep sound from the universe. I was also home alone on a very sunny day. It was an early spring. The sun was shining like a blaze and made it difficult for me to open eyes. Nearby, a man was carrying his baby son’s body to a grave yard. This image was printed into my memory forever.

I was also home alone on many early spring days. The sun was shining, the dragonflies were flying all over the places.  And I felt so lonely. I felt I was kept like a prisoner in my parents’ house. I wanted to run away from the loneliness and this prison.  As the days went by though, my relationship with myself and solitude started changing.  Slowly, I really started to enjoy being with myself. It seemed that I could know myself better when I was alone.


These days, when I feel down, I always choose to be alone and clear out my thoughts. Just like disturbed water clears after being left still, so is my soul. I can always feel my soul calm down, and the answers to all my struggles surface by themselves. I have become playful and cheerful when I am with myself, or with nature. I follow my heart and spend lots of time listening—to the birds singing, the trees whistling, the water dripping. I step outside and merge with nature. After that, I am recharged and ready to join life’s busyness and the crowd again!

There is a power to solitude! While it is important and nice to have a life mission, and while it is lovely to enjoy the magic of the Way and exhilarating to travel with loving companions, this phase of turning inwards is also part of the Awakening. I understand that this is merely a transition, and that life’s busyness is already knocking on my door again. Yet, like Suzanne before me, I hope that I will face life this time around even more centered within, and with a better understanding of what I am truly all about. Never mind a little solitude, you will find your Self there. The power of solitude sets you free!