With My Self

Abstract Solitude—spending time alone and not interacting with others—may be conducive to well-being and personal growth because individuals take the opportunity to self-connect. This chapter argues that self-determination theory provides a useful framework for understanding the dispositional and situational conditions for positive solitude, and why benefits arise. The chapter reviews the roles of preference, self-determined motivation, and choice as reasons individuals may find themselves alone, and it explores personal capacity for solitude as driven by an autonomous orientation. It offers a conceptual model describing positive characteristics of solitude, including quietude, fewer social demands, and less imposed structure, and links those with a number of affordances of solitude, namely, choice, freedom from pressure, and self-connection. In solitude, we can feel empowered to think, feel, and do what we want, and exercising those choices can foster a feeling of self-connection that promotes awareness, understanding, and personal growth.