The word “alone” does not mean sad or unsuccessful, and you should forget all the stigmas attached to it.

Whether you’ve been recently divorced, separated from your partner, or you haven’t still found your soul-mate, you must not be disappointed by your present condition. If you want to avoid being miserable in your lonely state, you will need to first forget about all the negative connotations placed on loneliness by the media and the society.

There have been many successful people in the past that lived a perfectly normal and happy life without any companion. People like Florence Nightingale, Oliver and Wilbur Wright, Nicola Tesla, Issac Newton, Queen Elizabeth I, John Locke and countless others, lived a long, happy, and successful life beyond the age of 80, without a single emotional lapse or mental breakdown.

Here Are 5 Ways to Transform Your Loneliness into Enjoyable Solitude

There are two states of loneliness – enforced and voluntary. The former is a painful and negative state of mind. It is when a person feels estranged,  unimportant, unwanted, and excluded from the people. This feeling can be triggered even when a person is surrounded by family and friends. It leads to self-loathing, despair, and self-rejection.

The other kind of loneliness is a more positive type where you feel totally happy and blissful inside. The individual relishes one’s own company, enjoying all the pleasures – both natural and artificial – around them. This state allows a person to have increased self-awareness, gain greater insights, and think more creatively. It restores and builds us up, enabling us to radiate with joy and happiness.

But the blissful positive state of solitude is not achieved by default. There is nothing in life that you can get without any effort. By taking active measures, you can turn your solitude into an enjoyable state that fills your heart with joy and happiness. The power of self-improvement lies within you.

1. Fill Your Time with Enjoyable Activities

You must think about the activities that make you happy. Do you like to sing? Do you like to paint? Do you like to play chess? Do you like to write stories? Is cooking delicious delicacies your favorite activity?

Whatever the activity is, you should find ways to indulge in said activity as frequently as possible. You will find that time passes quickly when you indulge in your favorite activity.

2. Learn New Things

When it comes to having an enjoyable time alone, learning something new is one of the best things you can do. Remember that you are never too old to learn something new. Have you ever wanted to learn to speak French, create sculptures, design a website, or code a computer program? If so, there is plenty of time for you to learn the new skill, and gain mastery over it.

You can try origami, create a new recipe, learn to repair things lying around the house, or even read and find out about intriguing things as fractals, the Fibonacci series, pulsars, the origin of black holes, and much more. There are so many things to learn that a curious mind will never find the time to get bored, or lonely.

3. Play your Heart Out

It’s unfortunate that when we become adults, we rarely play. The best way to enjoy your solitude is to give permission to your inner child to play its heart out. Keep in mind that you can still enjoy all the things that you loved to do as a kid, alone in the home or outside in the yard.

You can skip ropes, play video games, record your favorite karaoke tracks, play hoop, watch cartoons, and even cycle alone enjoying the wind kissing your face.  All of us have an inner child that stays with us when we grow up. It never dies. You need to nurture your inner child, and have a lot more fun in life.

4. Meditate

The benefits of meditation cannot be emphasized enough. It lets you clear your mind to a tabula rasa, improves focus, and lessens the pain caused due to daily toil and stress in life. Daily meditation of just five minutes can help you calm the nerves, allowing you to gain more mental clarity. You will feel more peaceful, less worried, and more attentive to all the pleasures that surround you.

5. Exercise

Research studies have shown that exercise can help you improve both the mental and physical state. Exercising daily can lower the risk of heart complications, diabetes, lung problems, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and many other serious health conditions. Given the overwhelming benefits of physical activity, it is obvious that you must practice daily exercise to remain, as they say, healthy, wealthy, and wise.

On a final note, it’s truly unacceptable that most people tend to equate happiness with having a partner or friends. The fact of the matter is that you can’t truly find happiness unless you find it within yourself. By learning to be self-reliant on your happiness, you will never feel lonely again.

You have a choice in life whether you want to wallow in your loneliness, or be free from the web of emotional dependence on others, and live a life of joy, happiness, and bliss by turning your loneliness into a sweet solitude.