Alone Hobbies

On the benefits of spending time alone, and hobbies to take us beyond boredom and anxiety in solitude.

In a nutshell:

• Solitude is viewed negatively as a state to avoid.
• Despite its reputation, solitude is beneficial.
• Despite its benefits, solitude can be difficult, as it can induce anxiety and boredom.
• Hobbies can help us avoid anxiety and boredom when spending time alone.
• Hobbies can also induce a flow state, to take us even further beyond boredom and anxiety.
• For some of us, spending time alone is a necessity.

Solitude is stigmatized

This prejudice, like other inaccurate and misleading ones, can be traced back to the ancient Greeks:

The Greek πολιτικόν, translated here as political, is sometimes translated as social. This is the source of a common saying: “Man is a social animal”.

Aristotle also writes:

This is later paraphrased by Francis Bacon:

According to Bacon, anyone who enjoys spending time alone and does not consider themselves a god is forced to see themselves as a beast.

But there are those who think differently:

Despite its stigma, solitude is beneficial

Despite its bad reputation, solitude can be highly beneficial.

Research reveals solitude can increase empathy and productivity, spark creativity, and build mental strength.

My feeling is that as far as creativity is concerned, isolation is required.

Isaac Asimov

Solitude can even improve our social relationships, despite the apparent contradiction, as it can promote a greater sense of intimacy or connectedness with others.

For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Without solitude, Love will not stay long by your side.

Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra

Spending time alone can be difficult

As beneficial as it can be, solitude can be difficult.

There are a few possible reasons for the bad taste alone time can sometimes take.

The first reason might be the stigma mentioned above: when we are alone we feel uncool. This is paradoxical, as being cool can be defined as being self-sufficient, and self-sufficiency is the core of solitude.

Another reason for the difficulty of solitude is that it regulates our emotions, and gives us time to think.

Once regulated, our minds tend to enter one of two states or both: anxiety and boredom.

Solitude is the mother of anxieties.

Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings

Anxiety rises in solitude probably because in our day-to-day lives we are too busy and distracted to confront our issues.

Thinking about it this way, letting our emotions surface is probably a good thing, as repressed feelings aren’t great for our mental health.

Solitude is the place of purification.

Martin Buber, I and Thou

Every once in a while, our minds should be pruned and purified.

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; Yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth.

Kahlil Gibran, Sand & Foam

As mentioned, boredom is another possible state for a regulated mind. Boredom, as solitude, is usually discriminated against and generally viewed as an unpleasant emotional state.

If boredom is unpleasant, it is probably either because the belief that we must always be productive is ingrained in us, or because we are addicted to stimulation.

While in fact, boredom can be beneficial and good for us. Some cultures actually praise boredom. The Dutch term Niksen “literally means to do nothing, to be idle or doing something without any use“.

The concept of Niksen is related to meditation, which is one way to harness the benefits of solitude.

Another way is hobbies.

With hobbies, we can enjoy solitude, and flow BEYOND boredom and anxiety

By pursuing a hobby on our own, we can relax, regulate our emotions, and contemplate our issues, while still being occupied enough (by something without any productive goal) not to fall into boredom and anxiety.

Hobbies can also induce a flow state.

In his book Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first named the flow state and defined it as “the holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement”.

Hobbies can also change the way others judge our alone time: We are not unsocial, we are just doing our own thing.

This way, hobbies can help us enjoy solitude’s virtues while avoiding its difficulties.

Some of us might need more alone time than others

We have different needs from one another. For some of us, solitude is a necessity. This might be the case for example for highly sensitive people (HSP), who are estimated to be about 15-20% of the population.

Elaine N. Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person, writes in her blog:

On solitude, she writes:

And indeed, dealing with society’s view on their need to be alone is one of the common struggles of highly-sensitive people.

To conclude, despite its bad reputation solitude is beneficial and important, even more so for some of us. Hobbies that can be done alone can help us flow beyond the boredom and anxiety induced by the initial adjustment to solitude.