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Originally Posted by Stephen  Has anyone used solitude as a tool to help in getting perspective; thinking.....indeed anything?
When I mean solitude, I mean actually removing yourself almost from society (as much as possible) and remaining physically isolated for an extended time? |
Do you mean going somewhere geographically isolated, like the mountains or desert? If so, then no, not often. For me, going somewhere isn't always necessary, and even when it is I don't have to go far.
Then again, I tend to be a lone wolf anyway. Solitude is part of my everyday life. I live in a busy urban neighborhood, but once I've closed the door, turn off the phone, and shut down the computer I can go for days without seeing or speaking to anyone. Sometimes I completely withdraw for a week to 10 days at a time, but even during my most socially-involved phases I always find space for solitude during the couse of a day.
If I have a big problem or decision I need to mull over, I've found that I rarely need more than a couple of hours, and maybe a pen and a notebook to convince myself of what I already know, then decide what course of action to take. I don't need to lock myself away for days, or go away in order to do that. In fact, if I do I tend to over-think things, and make it all needlessly complicated.
I've reached some of the biggest, toughest decisions of my life in about ten minutes, while sitting at my kitchen table. I've had sudden realizations about how I short-change and sabotage myself while standing in line at the supermarket. I've received life-changing inspiration in the shower. I've reached an understanding about a difficult relationship while riding the bus across town.
I think what I'm getting at is that somehow I've cultivated an inner solitude that allows me to retreat into a contemplative space without actually going anywhere, and that doesn't demand I remove myself from society or my everyday life. Sure, there are some things that are incredibly distracting, and will get in my way if I let them--specifically, the Internet, radio, and television. But I have the power to shut those off and put them aside. They're just gadgets, after all.
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I know two champions who came to remotest Ireland, near where I used to to live, to do such things.......Rockwell Kent (Artist).....Wittgenstein(Philosopher)
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But did they do so
specifically for the solitude? Or was it because that place, in itself, was so radically different from their permanent residences that it helped them re-envision their work and tackle it with renewed enthusiasm?
I ask this because for me, leaving home is a great way to get a lot of creative work done--after all, creativity thrives on difference and change. I've done a lot of writing and made a lot of watercolor studies for future paintings while hanging out in hotel rooms, for example.
I like traveling because it gets the creative juices flowing and it also gets me away from all the mundane tasks that "must" get done before I can settle in to creative work--cleaning the catbox, washing dishes, paying the bills, cutting the grass. It also pulls me away from my routine and my social circle, forcing me into a different headspace where everything seems new and strange again--including my own work.
But renting a temporary studio or office space in an unfamiliar part of town (and not installing phone or Internet), would do the same trick for me creatively as running off to the desert, or the remotest part of Ireland. I don't so much need
solitude to work as I do
strangeness. If I stayed too long, the space and the neighborhood would become too familiar (just as the desert, or the remotest part of Ireland would). I'd accumulate too much stuff. I'd get tuned in to neighborhood gossip and drama. I'd develop a group of friends that I ended up hanging out with instead of getting work done. I'd start to get distracted by mundane matters again, settling into a rut, and at that point it would be time to move on, to another strange space in an unfamiliar neighborhood, or even an outlying town.