People avoid being alone and try to occupy their free time distracting to escape from loneliness. But is not spending time without company something to flee at all costs?
Tools to escape from time without occupying
At present we suffer less material shortages and enjoy a more comfortable life than before. What is curious is that this satisfaction on the material level has resulted in a proportional increase in the number of people who feel an indeterminate spiritual vacuum. Getting things we want may momentarily distract us, but it does not completely eliminate that emptiness.
Nowadays tools that are cleverly designed to satisfy the needs of those people who feel empty and distract them from their inner emptiness are constantly being developed; they are tools full of mechanisms that trap our attention to avoid being exposed to an unoccupied time in which we might feel the void. Television was the maximum exponent of distraction tools until a few years ago, but lately it has been replaced by smartphones. We have become accustomed to seeing people hooked to the phone screen everywhere: on trains, on the streets ... Even those who cross the traffic lights without taking their eyes off the screen.
But why should we try so desperately to kill that precious time of our life by distracting ourselves?
Loneliness, solitude and isolation
If we desperately avoid having time without occupying, it is to flee from solitude and not feel alone. The fear of being alone forces us to stay distracted at all costs to not be doing nothing. But is solitude something terrible that we should avoid anyway?
The German philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) established three different concepts to refer to the fact of being alone: solitude, loneliness, and isolation. Loneliness is a situation in which the individual suffers from the fact of feeling alone and can not connect with himself. Isolation occurs when the individual engages in an activity and disconnects not only from others but also from himself. Solitude is, according to Arendt, a highly desirable situation and totally devoid of negative connotations, which it defines as a state in which "one person is two". Next we will explain what that state consists of.
Are there two people?
Before entering to reflect on this question, we must first understand the composition of the human being. I created the following diagram because I believe that those that are usually adopted in psychology do not serve to explain well the various phenomena that occur in the human being. I will use it to support my explanation, since it is a very useful tool for therapeutic practice and is easy for the general public to understand.
People have a hybrid structure. On the one hand, we have a base of heart = body that we share with the rest of the animals and is composed of wild principles that come from nature. On the other, the evolutionary process added to that base a mind responsible for processing information that does not respond to natural principles.
The mind carries a tool called language and processes information like a computer, making simulations and comparisons with reality. Its functions allow analyzing, forecasting, evaluating and planning to process the past and the future, but they do not serve to capture the present. In addition, the mind tends to try to control events using a style of "I must" and "I should not". Therefore, when something goes against their interests, the mind can unilaterally close the gate that separates it from the heart.
As the heart is fused with the body, there is no contradiction between the two. They always react intuitively and improvised before the here and now, that is, before the present. And, although the heart also uses a language like "I want" and "I do not want" to express its desires, it has the particularity of not always obeying logic and reasoning as the mind does.
From the explanation that we have just seen, we can understand Arendt's "one person are two" statement in the following way. Within each person there are two "people": one is the mind, which is the part formed by principles foreign to nature, and the other is the "heart = body", which is the part formed by natural principles. That's why, in essence, each person is two.
However, when the gate that connects both "people" is closed, communication is interrupted and the mind only looks at its relationship with the outside. And then she is forced to consider if she is connected with others and what they think of her. This is, precisely, the state to which we referred when we spoke of "being disconnected from oneself" in the explanation of loneliness and isolation.
The wealth and joy of solitude
Unlike what happens with loneliness, solitude, that state in which the inner gate of the person is open and its two facets or "people" are connected, it is a state of joy and inner richness. In solitude, the person is moved, has new ideas and is immersed in deep reflections.
As we indicated in the graphic above, listening to the "heart = body" implies connecting with the nature that extends beyond, where there also lies an abundant wisdom that all human beings share and that is like a vein of underground water.
Let's look at the graph above. If we do not dig enough, we may find only red, green or any other color, that is, differences of perception. However, if we continue digging to the bottom, we can extract a truth and beauty common to all of us that goes beyond the character or individuality of each person.
That which we call inspiration-a flash of the senses-is not something that our mind extracts by calculating, but an idea that arises unexpectedly from the "heart = body". And it is possible precisely because that nature that extends beyond the "heart = body" connects with the vein of underground water. All the wonders of art and literature, as well as discoveries and technological innovations derived from deep thought and science, are universal works born from that vein of water.
So, solitude allows us to reach a vein of underground water that gives us much more abundance than to connect with others superficially or access information that we already knew. That is why it should not inspire fear or anxiety.
Without time unoccupied, the person can not enter the state of solitude and, without solitude, his prolific internal dialogue can not unfold. Although, for fear of unoccupied time, one desperately tries to connect with others through social networks or other means, while not connecting with himself, he will only manage to isolate himself by distracting himself (for example, with the telephone), but he will not be able to shake off the sensation of emptiness and loneliness. Because the vacuum does not come from the lack of connection with others, but from the lack of connection with oneself.
Let's gather a little courage to reduce the time we spend entertaining ourselves and let us have time without occupying. Do not be afraid of solitude and try to calmly dialogue with that other person who lives inside of us. Surely that way we will begin to live our way and the moment will come when we will feel the supreme joy of connecting with the wisdom of the great vein of underground water.
Source:
Head illustration: Mica Okada
Text graphics: Izumiya Kanji