[Narz]

I'm thinking of, sometime in the next six months, renting a cabin by myself with some books, pen & paper, enough food & water for the week (but avoiding addictive foods like sugary things, cheese, etc) and avoiding human contact for the entire time. Perhaps have my girlfriend meet up with me on my final day & trip with her & discuss my experiences (and hers).

Seems like the worst case I'd get really lonely & bored & get nothing out of the experience (which might make me more depressed following). Best case, gain some inner peace and self-understanding, maybe conquer a or two.

Any thoughts as to logistics of doing this. Have you done something similar ever?

I've become somewhat of a distraction addict & it was be nice to be unplugged for some time.

In the past I've tried similar things but I couldn't handle it. I was too needy/codependent on others/stimulation. I wanted answers but I didn't really want to be alone. Now I actually do crave solitude. It's taken me 38 years but I really don't think the answers are "out there", I've known this for some time about consumable products but now I'm realizing ever other people, the sweetest woman, the wisest friend, the most knowledgeable & patient teacher can penetrate my heart or mind if it's a goddamn mess.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

Cheers.

[AdamB]

Feel free to share your thoughts.

Cheers.

I'm more a fan of grabbing a couple hundred gigabytes of data and beating it to death. With occasional breaks to go to the range. Don't need a cabin in the woods to do it, but wouldn't mind doing it there, as long as I've got the computer horsepower and data. And then I could just run out back and do the range thing.

[Plantagenet]

I'm thinking of, sometime in the next six months, renting a cabin by myself with some books, pen & paper, enough food & water for the week (but avoiding addictive foods like sugary things, cheese, etc) and avoiding human contact for the entire time.

Any thoughts as to logistics of doing this. Have you done something similar ever?

I own a remote cabin here in Alaska, but I also do a lot of solo travel in remote and not-so-remote places around the world. I recommend solo travel as the perfect way to spend time "alone" for retrospection.

Spending two weeks on a Greek Ferry sailing through the Dodecanese Islands with occasional stops at beautiful coastal fishing villages and then back on the ferry to head back to Athens, for instance, is a marvelous way to do that thinking. The scenery constantly changes, everything is foreign and exotic and interesting and educational, but you can still pull out an iPad or take a walk on the beach or whatever and be completely alone with time to write that book or work on whatever subject it is you need time along to work on.

My next solo trip is to Nepal---starting in about 10 days. It will be partly a group trip and partly some solo travel time.


Solo travel is another great way to get time off by yourself. Greece is pretty easy for the solo traveller.

Good Luck!

[Newfie]

My longest solo sail was 7 days. That's pretty solo. No radio. One sat phone call per day to Wife. I've done quite a few others of shorter duration, to 3 days.

There has been a lot written about this by solo sailors. It seems the first 24 to 72 hours is the most difficult. Lots of pineing for friends and family. After that you tend to get into a routine.

I won't say it's like that for me, but I'm a loner at heart, excepting my Wife.

I recommend it, being truly alone. No radio, TV, computers. Maybe some good books. I would do it is a wilderness area, but with cell phone coverage in case you need help. I find not having anyone around there is no one to blame. I find that I still get pissy about things just the same. Ergo, the "pissy" is from within. Hard lesson, but good.

Just remember it's a voyage of internal exploration and adventure. Like all good learning experiences it's NOT about comfort. If you are into tripping you may already have a clue. In some ways isolation is like that, but more insightful. You see things, but still have your cognitive powers to interpret it.

[Ibon]

[
My next solo trip is to Nepal---starting in about 10 days. It will be partly a group trip and partly some solo travel time.

PM me if you would like to have a private guide who is affordable if during your solo time you want to do some trekking in the Himalayas. We home schooled our kids in 2005 and were in Nepal for 4 months. We became friends with a Nepalese man and his family and my daughters have been back twice and we have recommended this guide to many friends. All of whom have loved their experience.

[Newfie]

Day 5

[attachment=0]IMG_0018.JPG[/attachment]

[Ibon]

I've become somewhat of a distraction addict & it was be nice to be unplugged for some time.

In the past I've tried similar things but I couldn't handle it.

This is rewarding, challenging, blissful and a torture at the same time. Our nervous systems have became over stimulated with digital media and a detox of sorts in solitude is great but you will wrestle with a tiger in your mind during those first days.

To understand the depths of our digital addiction you need to approach this solitude partially aware that you are like an alcoholic going into rehab. You will spend your first days with your mental synapses freaking out because you cant dock anywhere. Just be patient and move through that painful initial chapter because bliss awaits you when the mind starts to go silent and then merges with the silence of nature around you. Suddenly the mind becomes then present to the rhythms of the natural world and a vertical depth of experience takes over and you will even feel a religious type of love for mother earth and your place in the universe. The veil drops and that split between you and nature dissolves.

What Plantagent mentioned solo travel is also great but something different to what you are looking for. Travel is so intense the way your mind is stimulated with new language, cultures, public transportation etc. This can be rewarding but the mind remains fully busy with logistics and does not really have the opportunity to go into silence which is what you seem to be craving.

Where to go? Some ideas.... Fall of the year in red rock canyon area of southern Utah... Don't pick sexy locations in national parks. Just find a slot canyon somewhere.

Have a float plane fly you into a remote cabin by a lake somewhere up in the boreal forest. Lake of the Woods. Or canoe into these areas if you are experienced.

Backpack into to a base camp somewhere.

Hike part of the Appalachian Trail. OR the Pacific Crest Trail.

Burning calories to trigger endorphins is also a great way to ease the mind into silence. A 2000 mile bike trip along the Pacific Coast highway 1. Or backpacking longer distances if you have the health.

Burning calories during the beginning when the mind is restless is actually good because you are metabolizing during this initial chapter of restlessness with exercise as your brain struggles to relax into this silence. When you get those endorphins flowing this trumps the minds constant noise and you feel in your body the silence.

Let your body lead not your mind.

All humans have to wrestle with their brains which are marvelous instruments of natural selection but also flawed. Evolving to be sentient mortals guarantees neurosis for our species. That is why we create religions and meditative practices.

You take a shower in the morning. You clean your body. You wash your car. You clean your toilet. You mow your lawn. You move through your life practicing hygiene.

And yet so many people forget that their minds require maintenance as well and needs to be tended to.

Go for it.

Newf: great picture!

[Tanada]

I would add a boring high protein diet is helpful. High protein diet is filling with minimal intake and if you leave out spices it is bland enough to let your taste buds reset. A week of drinking only water and eating bland high protein food makes your first meal afterwards enlightening when you realize just how sweet and savory our typical food choices are. We stop appreciating food because our senses are so overwhelmed with the spices in our typical daily intake.

[Cog]

Introspection is vastly overrated.

[SeaGypsy]

Yep, I've got a sack of lentils, rice, jar of grated ginger & garlic, curry powder & olive oil- can live very healthily on very simple food for days easily, weeks get harder.

I'm not a huge fan of the 'experiential' version. When you are committed to a certain reality- to return to it, you are not going to have the depth of experience of a true inner journey. For this you have to be unsure, the more unsure the better. Osho said- ''knowing the mysteries of the world is nothing, compared with knowing the mysteries of your self".

(I like what you wrote Narz, seems you are deep into your journey already)

I'm a big fan of light technology- bikes, canoes, tents. Of finding niches, little parcels of paradise wherever I may be.

I write this at midnight, looking over the water with silence, no traffic, 20 km from the biggest city in Australia.

[asg70]

I also do a lot of solo travel in remote and not-so-remote places around the world. I recommend solo travel as the perfect way to spend time "alone" for retrospection.

So, you travel around the world purely for selfish "retrospection", contribute to global warming in the process, then advocate others do likewise. And all this, supposedly to ease the stress over being doomers, ya know, concern about things like carbon footprints.

Cognitive dissonance, exhibit A.

No wonder you spend so much of your time engaged in petty politics. If you actually had to judge your own lifestyle against your own "virtue signaling" value system you'd have to face your hypocrisy head-on.

[Cog]

Why do you care so much how Planty lives his life asg70? Because trust me, no one cares about whether you live on the street or a mansion.

[asg70]

Why do you care so much how Planty lives his life asg70?

Because he throws stones in glass houses.

[Plantagenet]

[
My next solo trip is to Nepal---starting in about 10 days. It will be partly a group trip and partly some solo travel time.

PM me if you would like to have a private guide who is affordable if during your solo time you want to do some trekking in the Himalayas. We home schooled our kids in 2005 and were in Nepal for 4 months. We became friends with a Nepalese man and his family and my daughters have been back twice and we have recommended this guide to many friends. All of whom have loved their experience.

Thanks IBON. I appreciate that. You do get around, don't you?

I'll be trekking in to the Everest Base Camp with an organized group to start, so I'm pretty much set up for the "trekking" part of my trip. Then I'm just going to hang out in Kathmandu for a week after the trek for the "solo travel" part of the trip. I'm very curious to see how the post-earthquake reconstruction is going in Kathmandu. I spent about a month in Kathmandu some years ago----amazing people and most amazing cultural monuments---and I'm hoping they are "OK."

Cheers!

PS: I borrowed a spy movie about Panama from the library here. Its called "The Tailor of Panama"---Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush based on a book by John leCarre. Quirky movie, lots of scenes shot in barrios, the spectacular bank and condo buildings, the canal zone etc. I don't know if you are a movie buff, but if so then you might check it out.

[vox_mundi]

Is it time to branch out?

... I stumbled upon shinrin-yoku or Japanese forest bathing (... in the metaphorical sense). Shinrin-yoku is the practice of going into nature to improve one's mental and physical health.

Between 2002 and 2012, the Japanese Government's forestry agency spent US$4 million researching the science of shinrin-yoku. Here are some of the highlights from those and related studies:

- A 2007 study found that shinrin-yoku was not only effective at reducing chronic stress but made an even bigger difference for people experiencing higher stress levels.
- A 2009 study found that phytoncide (chemicals given off by trees to protect themselves from insects) boosts the immune system by increasing human natural killer (NK) activity.
- A 2010 research review of 24 separate studies across Japan reported numerous health benefits from shinrin-yoku including lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity and lower sympathetic nerve activity than in city environments.

Despite extremely high population density, 67% of Japan is still forest. Among developed countries, this puts Japan second only to Finland in terms of forested land area. One of the key reasons for this is that they see the value of forests for human health, creativity and innovation.

We need to learn from this.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_bathing

This is what I imagine Ibon's sanctuary in the mountains is like.

[Cog]

Happiness is putting a tree to a useful purpose.

[SeaGypsy]

Is it time to branch out?

... I stumbled upon shinrin-yoku or Japanese forest bathing (... in the metaphorical sense). Shinrin-yoku is the practice of going into nature to improve one's mental and physical health.

Between 2002 and 2012, the Japanese Government's forestry agency spent US$4 million researching the science of shinrin-yoku. Here are some of the highlights from those and related studies:

- A 2007 study found that shinrin-yoku was not only effective at reducing chronic stress but made an even bigger difference for people experiencing higher stress levels.
- A 2009 study found that phytoncide (chemicals given off by trees to protect themselves from insects) boosts the immune system by increasing human natural killer (NK) activity.
- A 2010 research review of 24 separate studies across Japan reported numerous health benefits from shinrin-yoku including lower concentrations of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity and lower sympathetic nerve activity than in city environments.

Despite extremely high population density, 67% of Japan is still forest. Among developed countries, this puts Japan second only to Finland in terms of forested land area. One of the key reasons for this is that they see the value of forests for human health, creativity and innovation.

We need to learn from this.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_bathing

This is what I imagine Ibon's sanctuary in the mountains is like.

rewildu.com/what-is-rewilding/

You don't need to go all eastern esoteric. The same kind of things are being found, rediscovered around the world.

[mmasters]

I'm happy at home. I live in a house that has a large property and lots of nature. But there's also convenience, within 10 minutes drive I have access to 8 different grocery stores. Music and alcohol make for my introspection and writing time.

My favorite place to go away from home is the beach and preferably a tropical one.

[Narz]

Thank you for the ideas all.