On Solitude
“Begin here. It is raining. I look out on the maple, where a few leaves have turned yellow, and listen to Punch, the parrot, talking to himself and to the rain ticking gently against the windows. I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my “real” life again at last. That is what is strange—that friends, even passionate love, are not
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Chade-Meng Tan • Search Inside Yourself: Increase Productivity, Creativity and Happiness [ePub edition]
Bring a journal and a pen but no phones or computers. You can have a phone with you for emergencies, but the idea is that you leave it alone during the time you are on retreat. Don’t bring alcohol or substances that can alter your state, and don’t turn on the TV.
Anne Berube • The Burnout Antidote
But the next time I was flying home—from New York to California—I tried to take a page out of my former seatmate’s near-empty book. I didn’t turn on my monitor. I didn’t race through a novel. I didn’t even consciously try to do nothing: when an idea came to me or I recalled something I had to do back home, I pulled out a notebook and scribbled it d
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