So last week while driving to Ely I listened to a program on NPR. The topic was about solitude and how it has become a lost art in today's constantly connected world. Now that we are raging the age of electronics, it's even more so. We are living where at any moment of the day there are distractions and stimulants at our fingertips. They are great and powerful tools but you can't let them consume you. We are a super busy, stressed society ~ and the devices in our hands and pockets have become an even more distraction and added stress. It's even worse when kids get sucked into it. It's sad to think that the new generation of children could have a hard time being creative on their own. Even the actual word "solitude" has even become a negative one. Like if you are alone you are somehow strange? Why are people more and more afraid of the sounds of silence? We shouldn't be avoiding something that comes natural to us; we should be seeking it. Seeking solitude. Silence is golden.
Now, I want to apply that thought in
my daily life. I have to take advantage of quiet moments throughout my day. Particularly when my one and a half year old is sleeping. That quiet moment is what recharges me. Reboots me. It nourishes my soul; as long as I use it wisely. Any mother can relate to this. I have three kids. I've rarely visited the bathroom without an audience. lol. I crave and appreciate being alone when I can. As I grow older I learn its value more. We have several electronic devices and I know how difficult it is to not allow it to rule my precious time. I feel drained when I allow it to shape my day. They can easily intrude on my time of solitude. It's easy to get sucked into just one more youtube video, newsfeed, or yet another one of Kim Kardashians selfies! Haha
I will mention it again ~ there are so many distractions in our already busy lives! I'm still learning to find balance. It's wonderful to be connected to friends and family on social networks; I just want to avoid posting more of my life than living it. The exception is this blog because this is my journal and photo album (serving a much greater purpose).
So, I have been more mindful about "scheduling solitude" or simply taking advantage of the moments when they come to me. I know that when I get a time out (even for 15 minutes) I'm a better mom :)
As a little side note related to this topic, there was this powerful video that circulated on social media (naturally) you might find interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl8EIhrQjQ
Anyway, we should all be reminded of the importance of finding times through the day to be quiet, collect our thoughts, and "get back in our bodies (AKA mental body scan)." Creativity and problem solving flourish in solitude. With quiet and being present in the moment, we can exercise our memory,
listen to our bodies ~ reach deep within ourselves and focus. Because our concentration is improved, we become more productive!
I tried to find that NPR transcript but I couldn't find it. Instead, another article caught my attention. This is a list of influential, creative people who believed in the habit of solitude. There are many more examples, but these will ring a bell ;)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.
Mozart: “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer–say, traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal or during the night when I cannot sleep–it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.”
Albert Einstein – theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential and best known scientists and intellectuals of all time. He is often regarded as the father of modern physics.
Einstein: “On the other hand, although I have a regular work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. If my work isn’t going well, I lie down in the middle of a workday and gaze at the ceiling while I listen and visualize what goes on in my imagination.”
Franz Kafka – one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Novelist and writer of short stories whose works came to be regarded as one of the major achievements of 20th century literature.
Kafka: “You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Nikola Tesla – inventor, one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity, best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism.
Tesla: “The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone—that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.”
Joseph Haydn: A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Hungarian aristocratic Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it,
“forced to become original”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – German writer and polymath. Goethe’s works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, and science.
His magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust.
Goethe: “One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.”
Pablo Picasso – Spanish painter best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortunes throughout his life, making him one of the best-known figures in twentieth century art.
Picasso: “Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”
Carl Sandburg – American writer and editor, best known for his poetry.
He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg “indubitably an American in every pulse-beat.”
Sandburg: “One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.”
Thomas Mann – German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual.
Mann: “Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous — to poetry.”
Do you reboot? Do you tune in? Do you schedule solitude? Sometimes it's good to rant ;)
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| "The quieter you become, the more you can hear" ~ Ram Dass |
