While practicing solitude, it’s important to do engaging activities, he said. It’s a matter of discovering one’s own “Goldilocks spot,” the optimal balance between alone time and engaging with others, he explained.Ĭoplan said he and his colleagues’ research highlights how even spending as little as 15 minutes a day alone can evoke a calming effect on emotions, lasting even a week after the solitary activity. Some of the benefits include reducing stress and feelings of anger and frustration, Coplan said.Ĭoplan said there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to spending time alone as each person is different. “Nobody's disputing that loneliness is bad, and unwanted time alone, unwanted solitude is bad,” said Coplan.īut when people choose to spend time alone, that’s when the benefits of solitude arise, he said. This data was collected between August and September of 2021, to provide the first direct measure of loneliness felt by Canadians more than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison, a smaller share (seven per cent) of those who said they rarely or never feel lonely, indicated fair or poor mental health. The survey, titled “Canadian Social Survey – Well-being, Activities and Perception of Time,” reported close to half (49 per cent) of those who said that they always or often felt lonely indicated their mental health was either fair or poor. People who frequently feel lonely report poor mental health and lower levels of satisfaction, according to a survey by Statistics Canada. This manifests as a negative feeling which can be harmful to people’s health, he said. Loneliness, on the contrary, is the discrepancy between how much time someone wants to be with others versus the time they actually spend alone. “And, of course, it's also possible to be by yourself and not feel lonely.” “Adolescents will tell us they feel lonely sitting at the dinner table with their family. “It is possible to feel lonely when you are not alone,” he said. Solitude, he emphasizes, is the deliberate choice to spend time alone, a concept often misunderstood and conflated with loneliness. The key is to understand the difference between the two, Coplan told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. Top entertainment headlines, all in one place.The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App. ![]() In a virtually constantly connected world, the notion of solitude seems elusive, even daunting, and being alone is often thought of in a negative context.īut solitude is not the same as loneliness, and when people choose to spend time by themselves, it can actually be beneficial, according to Robert Coplan, a professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa.
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