You must have often heard your parents asking you to spend more time with family and friends in order to feel happier and relieve stress. But over time, we become dependent on others for our own happiness. However, in today’s fast-paced world, people do not get much time to spare for themselves, which affects their physical and mental health as well as their behaviour. Hence, to avoid such problems, counsellors emphasize more on "Me Time", i.e. spending more time with oneself for better mental health, more energy and to relieve stress.
Why Is It Important To Spend Time Alone?
A book by the famous author Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow mentions that people who spend some time alone stay far away from physical, mental and emotional stress. And in contrast to this, being constantly surrounded by people negatively impacts concentration and decision making, which can also make a person angry.
Joseph Murphy in his book, Power of the Subconscious Mind says that our body functions according to our mind. Therefore positive and pleasant thoughts can keep both our mind and body healthy, while negative thoughts can result in illnesses.
What Do The Wellness Experts Say?
Nandita, a mental wellness expert and founder and CEO of Jaivik Wellness says that if you spend some time alone with yourself every day, you will be able to assess all the situations happening around you in a better way. You can spend some time doing your favourite things like listening to music or pursuing one of your hobbies. This will make you happy and help you relieve stress.
Nandita says that both men and women (working/homemakers) usually get so engrossed in their work and responsibilities that even in their free time, they wish to complete certain pending tasks. However, most women in their ‘middle age’ (between 40-60 years) wish to spend some alone time, with no responsibilities related to family, work and children.
Our expert furthermore informs that many women who come to her for counselling are worried about their work, life and everyday petty quarrels, which causes stress, irritability and anger in them. Hence, she advises both men and women, "everyone should be friends with their own self first and prioritise oneself, because if you are not happy, how can you keep anyone else happy. Do something that you feel happy doing in your free time, eat good food and try to keep yourself happy in every possible way."
She says that "Me Time" does not mean that you stay all by yourself and do not talk to anyone around you. It just means spending a few minutes with yourself, doing something that you love. Do something that can make you feel happy and stress-free all day.
