Smriti Krishna, M.Phil., Ph.D., GCED, is a research scientist who focuses on improving the lives of patients with cardiovascular diseases and promoting healthy aging. Her work&nbsp;has been published in many leading general and specialist journals. Currently, she conducts her research at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, University of Melbourne, Australia.&nbsp;

Smriti is a strong community-oriented person with a long history of voluntary activities.&nbsp;She is an active member of the Australasian Mental Health Higher Education Committee, a Charter Member of the Emotional Well-Being Institute (UN Geneva), and a volunteer for the Heartfulness Institute.&nbsp;

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Smriti Krishna

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 DR. SMRITI KRISHNA shares some reflections on the value of solitude and alone time
 during the pandemic. She reminds us of some ancient wisdom from both
 the Japanese and Indian cultures on how to love ourselves, spend time
 with ourselves, accept our imperfections, and celebrate life, even
 during a pandemic!
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 As I glance outside my apartment balcony in the heart of Melbourne,
 Australia, to the piece of sky above and a green patch that I can see
 through the high-rise buildings, I notice that the streets are unusually
 quiet. The occasional chirping of birds breaks the deadly silence. The
 sixth lockdown due to the pandemic has turned the city into a ghost
 town.
 

 
 Many who have been resilient throughout the past emergence of the
 pandemic are starting to feel the sand wash away from under their feet.
 Holding on to positivity and being resilient is becoming harder as each
 day goes by. Many are lonely and confined to limited physical and
 emotional spaces. Yes, there is a vast virtual or digital world out
 there where we can hang out and reconnect with anyone across barriers,
 but still, many people feel lonely.
 

 
 I have listened to my friends’ complaints that the lockdown has made
 them realize how lonely they were.
 

 Why are we so reluctant to spend time with ourselves?

 
 Loneliness is an experience which, when turned into a positive, becomes
 a divine practice. Solitude is an enjoyable phase to detach yourself
 from your body and allow yourself to heal the wounds that past
 experiences have inflicted upon you. The solitude phase is
 transformative and nonjudgmental. You might be broken from inside: a
 broken marriage, broken friendships, children being irrational and
 alienating, loss of career growth, a lack of personal growth and feeling
 stuck. But it is okay to be broken, it is okay to have failed. You are
 beautiful the way you are.
 

 How to make solitude a divine experience?

 
 The practice of meditation takes us to a stage where we learn to accept
 the things that comes our way in life. Yes, life may not have been rosy,
 and there have been lost opportunities and occasions of discrimination,
 but so what? None of that has changed who we are “inside.”
 

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 The practice of meditation takes us to a stage where we learn
 to accept the things that comes our way in life.
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 Many of us have been lucky enough to have a list of friends on social
 media, a group of friends to help us enjoy weekend parties, and school
 and university social media groups that erase international borders, all
 of which have brought us together in the time of the pandemic. Those are
 all good support systems. But you want to go beyond that and live fully
 in the present moment. That’s when you are left alone with your real
 self and that is when you start to love yourself without judgment.
 

 
 The Japanese art of Kintsugi puts broken pieces of pottery together with
 gold, which is a metaphor for highlighting the flaws and imperfections
 in a damaged art piece. However, we don’t need Kintsugi. It is okay to
 be broken, it is okay to have been hurt in the past, it is okay to carry
 scars that have healed only on the surface. The whole of our life may
 not be perfect, but the pieces are just as beautiful as they are whole
 in themselves. The broken pieces don’t need to be aligning perfectly.
 Every piece or experience in life is a story, and it is perfect the way
 it is.
 

 
 Hindu philosophy teaches that the gunas (a Sanskrit word
 meaning tendencies or personalities) are not the true “Self,” or
 Atman. So, practice Atma-Prema, or unconditional
 self-love – love of the Self that exists at the center of all of us.
 AtmaPrema arises from the realization that beyond our
 imperfections, beyond the titles and genetic lineages we carry, our
 fundamental inner being is pure and eternal.
 

 
 As lockdown continues, now is the time to put all those years of reading
 about meditation into practice. Meditate and enjoy time with yourself.
 Congratulate yourself on the amazing journey so far. Be your best
 friend!
 

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 <h4 class="has-text-align-center">Illustrations by ARATI SHEDDE</h4>

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