To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.

Being alone with yourself, with nothing to answer and no one to perform for, is harder than most difficulties that come from outside. An enemy at least gives you something to push against. Your own thoughts, in a quiet room, come without an opponent and without an ending. Much of what looks like a full life is arranged, in part, to keep that room shut.

You do not need long stretches of it to begin. Twenty minutes without a screen, a walk with no podcast, a morning that does not start with other people’s voices. Some of what surfaces will be uncomfortable, and you are allowed to meet it slowly.