Wellbeing and Lifestyle Design Consultant

Loneliness and solitude: SOS, Caring for your soul, by Mansukh Patel

It was like a revelation to me that there was a difference between loneliness and solitude, which I realised for the first time when I read the book, SOS, Caring for your soul by Mansukh Patel. There’s an important key to understanding this insight: that what we describe as loneliness is really a painful emotion in which there’s no direction, no outcome. It arises when you feel alone.

In contrast, Mansukh Patel describes in the book how solitude is an activity. You choose it to regenerate your spirit, to rejuvenate your mind. You choose times of solitude as a way of using your time to its best potential; resting and recharging so that you can then use the rest of your time to its best capacity.

Both require being on your own, yet one is painful while the other is a vital part of healthy living.

So, I’ve often found that people I’m counselling can make big strides forward in their lives with this insight. If they find themselves in a period when they are spending time on their own, a great way to turn the experience into tremendous positivity, is to describe it just like that. Rather than labelling yourself as ‘lonely’, change your internal dialogue to re-label your time as ‘on my own’, or even better, ‘solitude’. Mansukh’s helpful text enables you to make this simple shift, which in turn enables you to make everything that you experience in this time by yourself into a useful, positive outcome. It becomes a great thing!

I’m sure that if you looked in the dictionary, you’d find that the origin of the word ‘lonely’ would be something like ‘isolating’. Whereas I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘solitude’ originated from a word like the Solar: energising and life giving. Thanks to Mansukh’s text on the difference between Solitude and Aloneness!

Info: SOS, Caring for your soul, by Mansukh Patel

More reading on personal development:

Turning Points book, Anita Goswami and Mansukh Patel
Awakening Soulforce, by Mansukh Patel
Believe in Yourself, by Mansukh Patel