I asked my spirit guides recently if they could talk about solitude. I asked them if it helps in the awakening process and I received the following message:

“Solitude leads to heaven. Not just solitude, but it is an important component, an important ingredient. You can never go within, when you are surrounded, all the time, by other human beings. You are too busy interacting with them, whether it is work or leisure or family, that you do not have time to go within. If you don’t go within and programme and change the mind and try and find a way through the maze in the lower, egoic mind and out of the maze, how can you awaken? You would be stuck in the Third-Dimension plane because you are relying on your five senses. When you have solitude, even if it is only 20 minutes a day of solitude, so that you can meditate, and similarly when you pray, it’s the sort of thing that you can do much better on your own with focus and dedication.

Apart from that, some people, such as you, like solitude to re-charge their batteries, to spend time communing with nature. You can do that much better if you are on your own, because if you were with people, (it’s nice to spend time with friends and family in a nice natural environment).… But to actually “be” instead of “do”, instead of talking or gossiping, you need to be on your own. Not all the time, of course, unless you so choose. But to have moments out in nature on your own. Then you don’t take the problems of the world with you. Because if you take two human beings, inevitably they will start talking about the health of the body or the state of the economy or the state of the world, or other little family problems or concerns or work problems and if you do this when you are out in nature, you might just as well be sitting in front of a brick wall! You are not absorbing nature or communing with nature if you are dealing with these sorts of problems.

So, to commune with nature, it is better to go for a walk on your own, with a dog, if you like. And don’t forget that Jesus went off into the desert for 40 days, as it says in the Bible. And he was communing with the higher spiritual realm and he couldn’t have done that if anybody had been with him. He would have been distracted. Solitude is an important part of the awakening process.”

That was an interesting message. I would just like to add that forgiveness is also a major part of the awakening process and that needs to be done in all situations, when one is with others and when one is on one’s own. Some people are really unhappy on their own and that, perhaps, is their forgiveness practice. Similarly, getting on well in a group of people could be the forgiveness practice of those who tend to live like a hermit.