The Inner Voice Gide Us Into Strength and Self-Trust
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Solitude
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Benefits of Solitude and How to Get the Most from Your Alone Time
Benefits of Solitude and How to Get the Most from Your Alone Time
By Sophie Bishop
2025/07/06
In today’s ever-connected world, there’s always something vying for our attention. For some, solitude can be scary, while for others, it is seen as a luxury. Here, we’ll explain why solitude should be something we strive for as part of our commitment to our own well-being.
Research suggests that spending time alone can be beneficial for our mental health, improving our resilience to stress and even boosting our immunity. But how do you make the most of your alone time?
Solitude vs. loneliness
Some people equate being alone with being lonely, but there are distinct differences between the two. Quality alone time is beneficial to our well-being and offers several benefits when it comes to our physical and mental health, whereas loneliness can do just the opposite.
When you’re alone by choice, you can return to socializing at any time, and you feel good about spending time alone. Whereas loneliness is not something you have chosen for yourself, and it’s not a situation you feel happy or positive about.
While many people fear seclusion, solitude is something that a surprising number of people seek out, in large part because of differences in personality. Introverted people, for example, may relish the opportunity to spend time by themselves, while extroverted personalities might prefer time spent with others. But regardless of your personality, there’s value to be had in spending time alone.
What are the benefits of solitude?
Solitude offers numerous benefits, and it can even form part of your self-care routine when you take time out intentionally to spend time by yourself and focus on your own health and well-being.
Time to rest
One of the primary benefits of alone time is that it gives you a chance to unwind and for your mind to rest and restore. When you’re constantly on the go, whether it’s work, meeting up with friends and family, or having to deal with personal tasks, you don’t have the time to really clear your mind. When you’re by yourself, you have the chance to refocus without any distractions, which can be rejuvenating.
Chance to find your own voice
Have you noticed that when you spend time with others, it’s easier to become influenced by them? Whether it’s going to places others choose or making decisions based on what other people will enjoy the most, we often go along with other people out of ease or simplicity.
But when you’re alone, you have the chance to really think about what you want and the decisions that will make you happiest. That might be in the moment, or it might be longer-term goals and plans for your life in general.
Better relationships with others
You may be surprised to learn that being alone can improve your relationships, but it’s true. Spending time by yourself improves your understanding of yourself and what you desire out of life, and that means you make better choices when it comes to the people you spend time with. And, as the phrase goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, meaning you’re likely to appreciate the people in your life more when you’ve had some time apart.
Increased creativity
When you have the chance to switch off and refocus your energy on relaxing, your mind is free to wander, and that can help when it comes to creativity and innovation. When we’re alone, we can sit with our thoughts and not have to worry about distractions, which gives the subconscious mind time to process our thoughts and find unexpected solutions to problems.
How to spend your alone time
When it comes to things to do alone, there are many activities and ideas you can get inspired by that will help you make the most of your solitude and feel restored.
Meditate
Meditating alone can be incredibly rewarding, and it offers several benefits for your mental health. Meditation has been proven to enhance your ability to focus and be present, and it helps to lower stress, increase self-awareness, and foster self-acceptance.
Practice journaling
Journaling is a great habit to get into, and alone time is the perfect opportunity to get your thoughts down on paper. When combined with another form of introspection, such as therapy, it can help you observe your life and emotions from a new perspective.
Invest in your well-being
Therapy can be a great way of getting to know yourself better and identifying ways to navigate complex emotions or difficulties in your life. You may invest in weekly online therapy sessions that will give you the building block to cope with stressors in your life, or you might want a personalized holistic approach that is tailored to your specific needs, working with a professional to deal with broader challenges or issues that are bothering you.
Whichever form of therapy you choose, your alone time can be spent reflecting on what you’ve discussed, which can improve your mental health by reaffirming what you’ve learned.
Connect with nature
Get outside into the fresh air and enjoy a relaxing walk, hike, or bike ride in the countryside. Nature is soothing for the mind, and it can do wonders for your mood, but it’s also a great place to spend time by yourself as you can feel even more peaceful and relaxed. Plus, there’s the added benefit of exercise, which also perks up our mood and aids our physical health.
Enjoy music or movies
You don’t need to worry about finding someone with the same taste in films or bands as you if you go by yourself. Attending a concert or watching a movie at the cinema by yourself can be a great way to really focus on what you’re watching, but it can also be a great way to meet like-minded people and broaden your social circle too.
Learn a new skill
Alone time can be a great time to sign up for a new evening class, take up a hobby you’ve always wanted to try, or try your hand at something new. From cooking and art to dancing or extreme sports, think of something you’ve always wanted to try and give it a go. Instead of having to go along with what those around you want to do, you’re free to pursue your own interests, and you might even discover a hidden talent you never knew you had.
Final thoughts
Solitude doesn’t have to be something you fear – in fact, taking time out intentionally to focus on yourself can do wonders for your self-esteem, mental health, and happiness. From practicing what you’ve learned in therapy to trying a new hobby to build up your confidence or getting out in nature to restore your mind, there are many things to do alone that bring you the opportunity to work on yourself.
Sophie Bishop
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Quietness and Stillness; or, If You Reach a Fork in the Road
Quietness and Stillness; or, If You Reach a Fork in the Road
By Steve Beckow
![]() |
| If you reach a fork in the road, take it |
I’m taking a day to relax, reflect, and share a laugh….
I just had a conversation that raised issues for me that were substantial and important.
I hadn’t had the same conversation since around 2012 when someone we know said to me, “You’ll soon be ready for the conference circuit.” And perfectly transparently but not at all subtly, I replied, “I have no interest in the conference circuit.” And of course I don’t. I’m a writer.
Of course as well, I never heard from the worthy gentleman again.
But the point is: I’m an introvert, an urban monk. I love silence. I work in writing, not in speaking. (1)
So that was one occasion when I reached a fork in the road (Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra’s advice: If you reach a fork in the road, take it).
The second conversation was when a friend asked me recently to involve myself in a workshop. Up came the same objection. I’m walking in the opposite direction – right now, anyways – because I was once a workshop junkie.
But right now I seek silence and solitude, not the effervescent, sociable atmosphere of a workshop.
And it really feels built-in, hard-wired. I know I’ll have to let it go when the Reval hits and humanitarian philanthropy enters the picture but I probably will always prefer quiet and solitude.
Don’t forget that, when our heart has been opened, (2) we have access to our own source of love and bliss – in our heart. So it isn’t that I’m sitting here doing nothing. And it isn’t that I’m saying I need another to “get” love from. I get it from my heart, my gas station, my ATM.
I need another to give love to. Love cries out to be shared.
I draw love up from my heart on the in-breath, enjoy it on the pause, and send it out to the world on the outbreath. And then turn my attention to whatever is next, greatly expanded in enjoyment and outlook.
Love must flow (3) and it seeks entrance and exit through any crack in our armor. But, if it’s not welcomed, it flows by us and, I assume, seeks the next open person to grace.
So another fork in the road which, when I reached it, I took it. Or did not take it. Errrrr…..
The road not taken. The fork left in the road. A reinforcement of the bent of my character – towards quietness and stillness – with love.
Footnotes
(1) Probably an even bigger obstacle is that I have almost no short-term memory. The latter days of An Hour with an Angel were hard for me because I couldn’t remember what was said or what my next question was.
(2) As it will be after the Ring of Fire, Wave of Love. See Ring of Fire, Wave of Love at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Ring-of-Fire-Wave-of-Love-Compilation-9.pdf
(3) Archangel Michael: Love is the energy of the universe. It is the energy of the Mother. And it moves constantly, continually, eternally, infinitely. So, to have an experience of love, it [must move] through you. (4) [My emphasis.] Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Dec. 5, 2018.) (Hereafter, AAM.)
AAM: Love is a fluid energy. It has need to flow and so when it does not flow it becomes… Well, as you put it, it be can become dry and brittle. It has need to be given and received above, below, within, without and in every which way. (AAM, April 30, 2019.)
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
The Philosophy of “As If”
The Philosophy of “As If”
By Steve Beckow

Hans Vaihinger, 1852-1933 Credit: Bridgman Images
My friend Len, who introduced me to Ascension in the first place, reminds me that operating “as if” is a basic component of manifestation. That’s right. Thank you for that, Len.
As I sat in the UBC Library in 1986, reading everything in the social sciences I could lay my hands on, (1) one book title fascinated me and stayed with me: The Philosophy of “As If,” by a German scholar, Hans Vaihinger, published in 1911.
I never read the book! But the idea always intrigued me and stayed with me.
There’s a profound concept in that phrase, on the use of the will in line with universal law. It may prove helpful in a time of chaos, because it’s a way of working with the outside world that provides a path through what’s going on around us.
Now, because I never got around to reading the book – it was “as if” the mere title was enough – what follows is me making it up, with apologies to Herr Vaihinger.
I never worked well with the imagination. Heaven knows why. I worked best (internally) with feelings. Ideas seemed to come and go of their own. I was always grabbing them as I thought everyone else was. But feelings was where I lived.
Vaihinger’s phrase, when I saw it in the library, got in. I’m going to stop talking about imagination and begin behaving “as if” things are the way I want them to be.
Why not? We’re doing it anyways in a hit-and-miss fashion. Why not perfect the skill?
Moreover, any spiritual teacher will tell us we’re making our world up anyways. (2)
And here’s a zinger. If we want the world to work for everyone, if we want our negotiations to be win/win, we have to include ourselves. Acting as if things are the way we’d like them to be is showing what it is we want. It’s transparency.
In the best of all possible worlds, all would be well. We’d be creating a reality we like, rather than one we dislike. And others would be doing the same. Where there was a fit, we pursue maters. Where not, we’d pass like ships in the night.
If we are God, our powers take in creation, preservation, and transformation, all achieved through the use of love. That makes sense, right? God creates, preserves, and transforms, all through the use of love? (3)
We are God (there is nothing else in the world), (4) slogging through a snowbank of 3/4D density, but we still create, preserve, and transform – lasting if through love, transitory if through hate and anger.
Let me play with “as if.” What if I operated “as if” I had all the time in the world – because, in one sense, I do. I’m eternal. You’re eternal. All of us are eternal beings. Thus, it can be said that we all have all the time in the world. (I’m re-educating myself here.)
Rather than go off after another example, let me hold on to this one and work with it. (We used to call this growthwork.)
I’m operating in the domain of will when I operate “as if” things are a certain way. They become that way for me, whether they are for the other person or not.
Flash: I just got that I can work this way with love. I can operate “as if” everyone I meet understands the love that I feel. If someone doesn’t, that situation gets identified quicker and I can tone it down or … whatever!
This is promising.
“As if” is a way to operate with the will such that, in my own little world or bubble, I’m always maximizing the chances of getting what I want; in my case, higher-dimensional, transformative love. It isn’t a guarantee. But it’s a tool in our toolbox.
Once the world feels this higher form of love, everyone will be saying the same thing as I am: Oh, it’s so wonderful! Rapturous. Blissful. Ambrosia! Brush off those superlatives.
We don’t have many words for something higher in dimension to us. But we do find that this love is what we want, what we’ve been looking for. It satisfies all our desires.
That’s why we have this silly smile on our faces.
The problem is that anyone who’s corrupt or narcissistic also uses “as if” to get their way. They can’t use love because love is not to be found in corruption. They usually act instead out of entitlement or manipulation.
They’ll go to much greater lengths to get what they want than the average decent person; they might go so far as to kill you, as the Nazis did.
I’ll bet that somewhere someone on this planet is killing someone right now and quoting scripture as they do it.
Any tool can be bent to any end. A chisel can make a fine cut in wood or kill someone. I’m not talking about a corrupt or narcissistic application of this process. I’m working in wood.
Our intentions need to be pure if we want a pure outcome. If we keep an eye on our intentions, and be transparent about them (more growthwork), we should avoid the misuse of this tool.
Whoa down there! That’s enough for one go!
Thank you, Michael, Annastara, my twin, my guides and, as always, the Mother. I apologize for going on and on. I was curious myself to see what was coming next.
Footnotes
(1) My Sociology Ph.D. adviser once said to me, “I think you only read introductions.” And he was right. I just wanted the concept. I wasn’t interested in the outworking of the details.
(2) I’m not a spiritual teacher. I have not the required level of enlightenment and I aspire to be a writer, sharing my own thoughts, not a guide. A spiritual teacher spends their time interacting with their pupils. I seek solitude and flee from email.
(3) I was able to confirm this view with the Mother and Archangel Michael.
A. Steve: I’ve read part of this quote to the Divine Mother. She’s verified it but I’ve added things to it. So I’d like to read it to you again and ask if it is correct.
Creation, preservation, and transformation = rajas, sattwa, and thamas [the gunas] = Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva [the Trimurthy] = Akar, Ukar and Makar [AUM] = inbreath, pause, and outbreath.
Archangel Michael: That is quite the expression, Sweet One, and, in that tradition and in that understanding, the answer is correct.
Steve: It is not discussed in other traditions.
AAM: No, it is not. (Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, April 2, 2020.)
Steve: [I’d like to] know if the gunas, the cosmic forces which are called rajas, sattwa, and thamas, are the same as the Trimurthy [Triad] of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
B. Divine Mother: Yes. We [the Divine Mother is all of these and infinitely more] are the same as that triad.
S: All right. And the Trimurthy of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva is a subset of the Universal Creative Vibration [Akar Ukar Makar or AUM] that you are at your essence. Is that correct?
DM: That is correct. It [the Trimurthy] is a way in which my beloved children can come to know me and to have that experience. It is formless, and yet it is form. It is a way of connection, and it is a way of understanding and entering into a higher vibration of being. So it helps the emergence into my energy.
S: Sort of like stair steps?
DM: That is correct. (“The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part ½,” Oct. 17, 2012, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/17/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/.)
(4) Verily, all is [God]. (Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester, trans., The Upanishads. Breath of the Eternal. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1957; c1948, 46.)
[There is] no other beside me. (Sri Krishna in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944, 71.)
I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 5:22.)
At last the gnostic [knower of God] understands … that everything in immanence is nothing other than His Manifestation and Tools. (Ibn Arabi Muhyideen, Kernel of the Kernel. trans. Ismail Hakki Bursevi. Sherborne: Beshara, n.d., 7.)
Monday, July 29, 2024
About Solitude
About Solitude
Thought Adjuster Is The Teacher
Message received by Oscar
Posted on July 29, 2024
© The 11:11 Progress Group.
Faith is just curiosity tinged with hope — Thought Adjuster.
Sunday, April 16, 2023
10 Sad Reasons Why So Many Great People Stay Single Forever
10 Sad Reasons Why So Many Great People Stay Single Forever
By Sherrie Hurd, A.A.
learning-mind.com
Posted on April 16, 2023

About the author:
Staff writer at Learning Mind
Sherrie Hurd is a professional writer and artist with over 20 years of experience. As a survivor of childhood trauma and multiple types of abuse, she is an advocate for mental health awareness. Sherrie manages multiple mental illnesses, including anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. With this background and personal experience, she strives to help others overcome trauma and abuse, cope with mental illness, and heal over time.
Copyright © 2012-2023 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
Sherrie Hurd is a professional writer and artist with over 20 years of experience. As a survivor of childhood trauma and multiple types of abuse, she is an advocate for mental health awareness. Sherrie manages multiple mental illnesses, including anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. With this background and personal experience, she strives to help others overcome trauma and abuse, cope with mental illness, and heal over time.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Why Am I Still Single? 16 Psychological Reasons You Might Find Surprising
Why Am I Still Single? 16 Psychological Reasons You Might Find Surprising
By Janey Davies, B.A. (Hons)









