Solitary
At the Salon, time unravel in an unpredictable fashion. Sometimes, the days hastened to a chaotic blur when I am being swarmed by customers. Yet there are days when there are no one to expect and time crawls to an eternity.
And in those quiet moments, solitary becomes your intimate companion.
I wondered if that’s how Einstein discovered his theory of special relativity — by spacing out quietly, with time.
Sitting on the creaky barber chair, my mind cast back on the good times when I was holding a secure 9–5 job; Ogling on office ladies with attires that defies the appropriate dress code, frivolously guzzling down on coffee at the office pantry and other kinds of covert staff welfare exploits.
I smiled while I lowered down the lever to adjust the seat into a recliner mode, as I realized by now my back was starting to ache. But these pains are nothing more than a temporary passing, just like my reminiscents of yesterdays.
The power of solitude
Solitude has the power to let your mind whirl into deep reflection and to relive the past moments and future events.
In an age where everything has the potential to distract you from taking a mental pause, you forgot about how essential it is for one’s wellbeing to have a break and re-evaluate their life.
I see this happening in our generation. Solitude and alone time to them means sitting at Starbucks, listening to music on their earphones while twiddling on their laptops or their smart devices.
Solitude in this distorted sense celebrates distraction to fill up the void inside, disguised as an image of an independent individual.
We have become a culture addicted to noise or simply scared of silence.
Solitary and quietude — which I shall define it loosely— is none of the above but rather seeking perspective in quiet moments.
But quiet moments can also turn against you.
Ponder too much and you paralyze yourself with unnecessary worry. There are studies linking quietude with boredom and depression.
What quietude means to me
The periods of alone time are when I learn to anticipate about future events, what other improvements that I can explore in my life and reflecting on other things which I used to discern under a negative light, which may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
The trick is to adopt a positive mindset during your inner reflection, keep your emotions in check which may be sabotaging your thoughts and write down on things you uncover during these moments.
[revised 31 Dec 2018] Thank you for reading.
