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The Perks of Being Alone – a Short Essay about Self-empowerment

Hello Everyone and Welcome to JGC Blog.

Today, I want to talk about the positive aspects of being alone and how those aspects can lead to self-empowerment.

  • Loneliness has nothing to do with it.

In today’s world, being alone is completely misconstrued and misunderstood. The stigma attached to it sticks to in every part of our society. when you go to a restaurant or the theaters alone then you are considered weird by your peers, traveling alone is often viewed as reckless or dangerous and living alone is suspicious and saddled with the antisocial tag.

If you spend the majority of your time by yourself, the inevitable questions and downright nagging will come from your family or your friends: Why aren’t you dating? why do you always go out without someone? why are you always traveling alone? Don’t you miss people? 

Then comes the unsolicited advice on how to make a friend or find someone to share your life, heart, soul, bed or whatever is left of you with:

You should try to open up to people, you should make an effort to let people in, you should be a little more agreeable, smile more, give more of your time, give more of yourself, you don’t want to die alone, do you? 

Of course not. But what does that have to do with anything?

When did it become inconceivable to enjoy being alone? When did people started to automatically assume that you hate everybody or that there is something wrong and unpalatable about you, just because you enjoy being alone?

For a society that increasingly glorifies individualism, we are hypocritical when to it comes to acknowledge the real distinction between being alone and being lonely.

There is no fear and no shame in staying alone, no matter what society tells you. If you prefer to spend time by yourself, think by yourself or live by yourself, it does not negate your social skills and it should not suggest that you are only doing it because you have no choice.

You have a choice, you just chose differently.

Being alone does not mean you are lonely. It does not mean you hate people. There is nothing wrong with you. 

Now that fact-checking is out the way, let’s talk about the benefits of it.

Being alone can force you to judge yourself and judging yourself may lead you to love yourself.

There is a reason why most people try to avoid being alone and always seek out others, always needing someone to distract them from themselves.

Being alone is the best exercise of self-love you can do. There is nowhere to run, you cannot run from yourself, you are alone with your thoughts and nothing to distract you from your inner demons.

What to do in this case? Confront them dead on.

  • Being alone is the best place to start on a self-empowerment journey

Taking the time to reflect on yourself, your life, the direction you want it to go, your dreams, your failures, your feelings, your faults, your qualities, your successes… learning yourself, evaluating yourself, judging yourself… it all sounds very scary. Especially if you tend to be your own and harshest critic. Here is what you need to remember:

Choosing to be alone is choosing yourself. It’s choosing to help yourself.

Who else will do it if not you? All self-progress and self-improvement in your life must start with you.

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Bridge Vroenhoven by Patrice Dreuning

There is no one else to put first but yourself and we should not devalue the self-empowering impact of this.

Self-reflexion, when done properly (meaning with stark honesty and a lack of fear), will inevitably lead to self-revelation. So ask yourself the right questions:

What does love mean to me? Do I love myself, why? why not? what can I improve? What needs to stay the same?

Define what self-empowerment means to you. People have a lot of definition for it and it doesn’t encompass the same things for everybody.

For me, the concept of self-empowerment is the best decision you can make for yourself, especially if you are on a path of becoming the best version of yourself. It’s a decision that must come from within.

It’s a personal journey, a conscious choice to take control of your life and do everything you can to ameliorate it, all of it.  Whether it is on an emotional, spiritual, financial, social, professional or mental level, what is important is that it’s a personal matter and you care about it. It’s something you want to fix.

It’s the troubles, the weaknesses, the fears, the insecurities and the self-hatred you wish to acknowledge and eventually overcome.

Why? Because fixing yourself is healing yourself. It’s reclaiming your true-self back and loving yourself like you deserve. There is nothing worse than living your life not knowing who you are or trying to be someone else.

Empowering yourself is not selfish, it’s self-aware.

It’s also the only way to finally live your life to the fullest, at peace with yourself, aware of the good, the bad and the ugly, because self-empowerment would have taught you that you are good enough, you always have been.

***

Thank you for reading, I hope it helped.

All my love.


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19 comments

    1. I know right! I have been traveling alone for years now and the results on my mind and wellness have been amazing. There is nothing wrong with discovering yourself… I am so glad you agree! Thank you for your comment! ❤️😊🙏🏽

      Liked by 1 person

  1. Reblogged this on My Wellbeing and Learning Journey and commented:
    A blog post re-share, about those that choose to be alone. The benefits of being alone and how we improve our self-esteem. It’s a personal journey for those that choose to live alone and coming across this post in my reader, because I follow this blog. I found this blog post a great, inspirational read. It is nice to read someone else’s positive perspectives on living alone.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you for this wonderful shoot-out! Wow! I’m so appreciative of this comment and the re-share and I’m very grateful and glad you like this article. I wrote to help people feel good about themselves, no matter what;
      Thank you! ❤️

      Liked by 1 person

  2. This is beautifully written. I could absolutely relate to all your wrote.

    Although I’ve been thinking and lamenting about a solitary life for the past few days, but I’ve realized I’ve become more focussed ever since.

    Liked by 1 person

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