The Benefits of Solitude

Photo Credit: Greg O'Dell (Life Through Lenses Photography)

My son took this picture when we were hiking. It perfectly captures my current season–not isolated, but rather intentionally cultivating solitude. Don't get me wrong, it certainly started out as forced isolation. My body shut down making it difficult to leave my house most days. I also left everything I was involved in, meaning that I no longer saw many of the people I did life with on a daily basis. But I knew God was leading the way, and that He had purpose in it all.

Slowly, over time, my health began to improve, I started a new business (Jubilee Seasons), I became a vendor at our local Farmer's Market, and we (my husband, myself, and one of our sons) are attending a new church. Life back to normal, right? Mmmm...

One of my favorite authors is Henri Nouwen. He is such a breath of fresh air when it comes to the relationship between cultivating quietness and serving those around you. In his book Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, he says, "To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. This requires not only courage but also strong faith. As hard as it is to believe that the dry desolate desert can yield endless varieties of flowers, it is equally hard to imagine that our loneliness is hiding unknown beauty." He goes on to write about learning to be of service to the world around you from this place of solitude and why that's important. (It's a great book if you are interested).

There are also known physical benefits to cultivating solitude as well. Some of those include allowing our nervous systems time to shift from survival to rest; hightened creativity when we allow for times of self-reflection instead of constant input; our cortisol and inflammatory levels are lowered during times of intentional solitude; and we reconnect with our authentic self (instead of social masking) which allows our fragmented parts to find integration. Without solitude, we continually fill the void so that we do not have to deal with our fragmentation. But that's not the path to health and wholeness. Even Jesus encouraged solitude.

“Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, [Jesus] said to [his disciples], ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” (Mark 6:31-32)

I don't know what season you find yourself in. And, it is certainly important to say that those dealing with painful isolation need to find others who can simply be present, and listen. But for those whose desert is starting to bloom again, you are not the same person you were when you entered into the arid wasteland that seemed to have no end in sight. The streams of water that God revealed along the way nourished seeds of new life that you didn't plant. But he knew they were there and what they needed to sprout to life. When we know our heavenly Father through relationship with Jesus, we are never truly alone. And, all things...all things...are made new through the One who renews, restores, and recreates for His glory.

Friend, if you sense the Holy Spirit calling you into a solitary place, follow Him...He knows the way through into a deeper awareness of the abundant life found in Jesus...