From Loneliness to Solitude

“Loneliness, once the captor of my spirit, now seems like a dear companion and wears the gentle name of solitude. It happened slowly, gradually. Instead of fighting loneliness, I learned to take it inside of me and to fill it with thoughts and fantasies and plans. I structured it to be productive. I learned to count on its solid presence…” – Susan Baumgartner

Self esteem is fundamental in turning loneliness into solitude. Self esteem comes from various sources. It comes from the nature of the relationship we make with a hostile, unpredictable world.

Quiet helps us learn to be less anxious in the midst of anxiety.

In times of solitude we take the world off our shoulders and suspend the need to manage everyone and everything. In practising extended silence where there is no need to defend ourselves, we build reserves of quiet self esteem, we learn to be comfortable with ourselves and more generous with our impressions of others. We mature in intelligent compassion.

Experience Quiet with Others

In times of chaos (personal or global), the usual inclination is to seek a variety of rituals to restore order and a personal sense of safety. The Practice of Quiet offers the ritual of silence in the company of others.

As an individual within a quiet community, a unique style of connection is formed. On our own, and yet not alone. They are silent and so are you.

It is in that humble silence that the message “we are all just walking each other home” speaks to us.

Restoring our faculty for ‘thought’ and ‘judgement’ through active thinking

At the Practice of Quiet we are offering you time for personal active thinking which is, in itself, already a form of action since it makes us aware we are a responsible participant in the world.

How responsible are we for what we say, read or do if we are operating on ‘auto pilot’, seduced by current trends? If we were found to be behaving badly, let not our defence be that we weren’t thinking. The philosopher Henry Bugbee reminds us to be receptive as distinct from suggestible.

“This is the pure form of servitude: to exist as an instrument” - Herbert Marcuse