First time ever in my life
Going on a solo trip
Hey friends 👋
For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about the importance of being alone and spending time with myself. After I quit my job, I wanted to consciously focus on a few things and this was one of them. Going way back in time, I have always had lots of people around me. Starting from my school days, college days, and even during my work, I've had the blessing of meeting wonderful people and forming great relationships with them. I love being around these people & I have nothing to complain about here. But this week, I had this urge to go on a solo vacation to spend time with myself.
So last Monday, I looked for places to visit and immediately booked hotels the same day. It was a sudden late-night plan that actually turned out to be true. Now I’m in the middle of the 1-week trip, to Kochi & Alappuzha. Man, this city is beautiful, the people here are so kind (a general pattern in tourist cities) and the food is yummy!
I’m having a great time here but if you ask me if I’m *really* spending time with my thoughts? the answer is NO.
I knew no one here & I’m chilling all by myself. Still, my day felt the same as before, nothing major changed. Physically, things around me changed for sure, but mentally I didn’t feel any different. This seemed strange to me, I was expecting something drastic but nothing really happened. So I was thinking about this and realised that being alone is not just the result of the physical world but it has a lot to do with the digital world. For the first 2 days, I consumed the same amount of content online, scrolled through Twitter as usual, & talked to people the same as before. Nothing changed, other than my physical location.
I still think going on a solo vacation helps. But the act of spending time with myself has to do more with my digital world that my physical world. When I think back, most of the "me" time I had in Bangalore was not taken away by the people around me; instead, it was taken away by social media and the content I keep consuming all day long. Even while I'm alone at home, I keep scrolling through Twitter or listening to a podcast.
This also reminded me of a speech by David Friedberg, where he said - We humans prefer knowing than thinking. In this information-abundance era, knowing things is much easier than thinking. Knowing also has a more immediate value in return. By knowing things, you can show off to your friends and peers. It keeps us in the loop and helps us stay connected with the world. But thinking is not the same. Thinking is hard and you need to listen & spend time with your own thoughts. We are constantly bombarded with information, and thinking has to be a conscious effort, or else it’s impossible to escape this trap.
Here’s the link to the full talk:
Battling this is going to be hard for me. I have failed multiple times before but I’m going to try nonetheless. I’m going to start by restricting the time I spend on these apps to 15 minutes on my phone. I’m not sure if things will change by doing this, let’s see how it goes. Another hypothesis I have is - the longer the form of content, the more time I get to think about that single topic. Thus, books are way better than podcasts, podcasts are better than tweets or Reels and so on. Going to try this as well!
Above all, I believe writing is a great way to think for yourself. The essays I write every week help me think way better about these topics and puts things into a structure. I might as well come up with other writing routines to see if that can help in some way. And that’s it from my side. How do you spend time with your thoughts? And what’s your opinion on thinking vs knowing? Would love to hear your thoughts, just reply to this mail & let’s chat!
💫 This week in Read Write Run
📹 Inside Mark Rober's Secret Studio
I’m a huge fan of Mark Rober & I’m seeing his studio for the first time!!! Every piece of the studio screams Mark Rober and that’s why I love this video. The photo wall at the pathway to his studio is 😍😍😍
🎙 Anjali Menon Interview With Baradwaj Rangan
I recently watched the movie Wonder Women by Anjali Menon on Sony Liv. It’s a sweet little movie about sisterhood, & motherhood. This interview dives deep into Anjali Menon’s process of writing & directing movies. Definitely watch this soulful conversation if you are interested in the filmmaking process.
🏃 Run
This was the hardest week in the past 9 week's streak. My legs felt weak and I was battling myself to start the run every day! Didn’t reach the 25 km goal, and missed it by 1.5 km but I’m super happy that I came this close this week.
PS: I went for a run along the beach of Fort Kochi this week, it was beautiful!
Let’s keep running!!! See you next week.
Good writing buddy :-)