Your Bubble of Solitude

As I lay in bed the other night, after going through my pre-sleep ritual, I started to think of the people I love. It was almost midnight and most of them were presumably asleep.

It occurred to me that there was almost a 100% chance that they were not thinking of me. No one in the entire world was thinking of me in that moment.

I was all alone in my own thought bubble, alone with my awareness. No one’s lines of thought intersected with mine. It was a feeling of great joy, basking in my solitude.

Even the people who love me most, those who are closest to me, are thinking only of themselves almost all the time. It’s natural and it’s true of everyone.

There are many people I love, but I don’t think of them except maybe a couple times each day, if that. I’m busy doing my own thing. Although I enjoy their company, when I’m not with them, I don’t really care what they’re doing. Likewise, they don’t care what I’m doing.

In spite of these truths, often it seems that people care what we’re doing, what we’re thinking. If we regret something we said or did to someone, we fixate our minds on it and feel bad about it. But it’s pointless. The people we’re worried about aren’t thinking of us. They’re doing their own things, overcoming their own struggles.

Next time you’re alone in bed, late at night or early in the morning while the rest of the world sleeps, consider that you’re entirely alone in your own private bubble of thought and existence. You’re entirely free to think what you want without judgment, without anyone else interfering. You’re free to be yourself fully. Enjoy it.