Making Peace with Time Alone

The first seven days

• Day 1Spend fifteen minutes alone doing something you enjoy, on purpose, and notice how it feels.
• Day 2Write down the difference between being alone and being lonely, in your own words.
• Day 3Take yourself somewhere nice today, a café, a park, a bookstore, and stay for a while.
• Day 4Cook one meal for yourself as carefully as you would for a guest.
• Day 5Write down three things you like about your own company.
• Day 6Talk to yourself kindly out loud for a minute, the way you would to a friend who was visiting.
• Day 7Do one thing today that you have been waiting to do "with someone." Do it alone and enjoy it.

Further into the year

The to-dos keep changing as the year goes on. A few from later in this theme:

• Day 30Look back over this challenge and write down what you learned about your own company.
• Day 60Try a new recipe from a cuisine you have never cooked, just for the fun of learning it.
• Day 120Try a new breakfast spot alone on a weekend and sit at the counter.
• Day 240Notice the moment tonight when you close your front door, and say "home" out loud.
• Day 365Look back over the year and write down three ways your own company has become easier to keep.

How a challenge works

A Theraglee challenge is a theme with one small to-do for every day of a year. You choose how long yours runs, anywhere from a week to the full year, and each day you get the next to-do: something that takes a few minutes and fits inside an ordinary day. Tick it off when it is done. Nothing is scored and nothing is lost if you miss a day; the next to-do is simply waiting when you come back.

Challenges come with a free Theraglee account, which never asks for a card. Your progress stays private to you.

Challenges like this one

Reading that goes with it