You should never have to apologize for needing some time alone, time to re-new and get to know who you are and what you want for yourself.  Ideally, this should be on a regular basis, at least a few hours a week.

Far too often our society thinks of its inhabitants as coming in pairs only.  We aren’t complete if we aren’t with someone else.  Possibly you remember those teen-age years when you might have felt you couldn’t go anywhere alone without everyone judging you to be a “loser.”

Well, you are losing when you have lost your sense of self, when you never spend time being with the one person who will always listen, who will always be there for you.

You have a responsibility to those around you and, most especially, to yourself to be the best person you can be.  And sometimes it takes being alone to figure out who that person is.  You have a right to figure out who you are.  You can learn what you have to give the world and come back to that world with a clearer head.

Of course, if you deserve time alone, then so do those around you.  You can allow those you care about the same gift.  You can let them be with themselves and not feel rejected or lay a guilt trip on them.  Rejection has nothing to do with it. 

I’m not talking here about the time you spend out with the girls or boys.  I’m talking about being with only yourself, doing what you want to do, on your own terms.  If you have a problem doing this, you should possibly think about why that is so.  Perhaps you are thinking of yourself only in the relationship you have to another person. . .child, wife, boyfriend, husband, employee, etc.

You alone can decide who you are.  You alone might be able to see with more clarity.  Spend some time with and for you.  I promise, it will be time well spent. 

May your day include time alone,

Lana Keating