Meet Your True Self in Solitude; Take time to find that quiet and peaceful place within

By Sister Chirya —

The purpose of solitude is to reconnect with your true self. 

“Everything you ever searched for is not outside you, but inside you. You discover the silence within, the only place where you can truly hear yourself. 

“Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge. In solitude, there is no audience, no masks, no scripts, only the echo of your own breathing. You enjoy being alone. You are not the everyday self chasing after society. 

“If you are never alone, you cannot know yourself. You are not escaping life, but walking directly into it — free, unguarded, without performance. Learn to like yourself since you must spend so much time with yourself; you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship. — Norman Vincent Peale

Have you ever truly sat with yourself — no goal, no distraction, no one here to impress, just listen? You no longer resist your own company. In the silence of solitude, you are the witness. Here, the shell of body consciousness is broken. Only when we go within can we begin to see a light that does not come from outside, but from a presence already alive within us. 

Everything you thought you were finished. You are no longer the child, the worker, the politician, or the professor, or anything else, just an awareness that is YOU. It helps you recognize yourself, the eternal soul. What emerges and remains in silence is the quiet knowing presence of you, the soul, that has existed forever beyond all your memories and will remain where language fails. 

Time becomes timeless and no longer feels like something to be outrun. What remains is the living truth of who you are, the timeless you, the thinking being, separate from the body, beyond birth and death. 

When this presence of the soul is discovered and felt, spiritual love blossoms within. You easily act without reaction, with a controlled, gentle, patient response, free from demands, free from attachment to what you do. The intellect surrenders, the internal noise of many thoughts clears, and brings you to the edge of your being.  

Here in solitude is the place where our deepest wisdom of God is found, where you receive beautiful spiritual thoughts, feelings, and power. The silence of solitude is not the absence of thoughts, but a state in which the mind is engaged in pure elevated thoughts that nurture values of peace, love, and happiness. 

Find that quiet and peaceful place inside. See and feel these values as part of our life, and you become them. Think deeply about these values, and happiness will stay in our hearts forever. Always start with vision, not action. See it, and you will be it. Be it, and you will do it. This is how we create our own life through solitude.

(Sister Chirya can be reached via email at bkchirya@gmail.com or chirya.risely@peacevillageretreat.org. Sister Chirya has been a student and teacher with the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University for over 40 years. She is published in several national and international publications, including the Daily Guardian in Delhi.)