Enjoying your own company is one of the greatest gifts in life. But for some of us, it feels mildly uncomfortable, at best, and at worst, downright scary! In this post, learn what it means to enjoy your own company, why it matters, and how you can begin to treasure time spent in your own company. + 65 enjoy your own company quotes that will leave you feeling inspired.
I used to be scared to spend time alone.
My younger self thought that having nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon or no one to spend the day with was depressing.
It’s not because I found it lonely, but I was uneasy being with my own thoughts and therefore idle time alone was something I avoided.
Instead, I found myself engaging in activities I didn’t enjoy simply so I would be in the company of others.
Oftentimes, this left me feeling disappointed and actually led to feelings of loneliness because I wasn’t engaged in how I was spending my time.
As an introvert, I needed solitude and time spent with my inner world in order to feel my best. I just didn’t realize it at the time.
Since then, I’ve come to understand that spending time by yourself is healthy, necessary, and really not so scary at all!
These days, I relish my solo time and try to carve out time for it whenever I can.
However, now that I’m a wife and mom to two vivacious boys, alone time is much harder to come by. I wish I would’ve cherished it more in my younger years and learned to enjoy my own company a lot sooner!
Not only is enjoying your own company one of the best parts of life, it’s also vital to your personal growth and wellbeing, especially if you’re a mom.
You just have to work a little harder and sometimes get creative in order to find those pockets of solo time for yourself!
In this post, learn why enjoying your own company is important, how you can begin to do so, and 65 inspiring quotes to enjoy your own company.
Related: “This Is 40(Ish): A Letter To My Younger Self”
What does it mean to enjoy your own company?
To enjoy your own company means that you are comfortable with the idea of being alone, spending time with your thoughts, and can find happiness in those moments spent in solitude just as much as when there are others around with whom to share the experience.
Enjoying your own company also means that you have developed a strong sense of self-love and accept yourself for who you are.
With this self-love and acceptance, you learn to develop a healthy relationship with yourself. One in which you are secure in who you are and comfortable spending time alone.
That is not to say that you need to spend all your free time alone in order to have a healthy relationship with yourself!
We all know that once you become a mom, you don’t have nearly as much free time as you did in your younger years. But when you do manage to find those windows of time that you can spend how you choose, the key is to find the optimal balance between alone time and time spent with others that works for you.
Each of us will require different amounts of solitude depending on our personalities and whether we are introverted or extroverted.
Finding this optimal balance of solo time versus time spent with others requires a bit of getting to know yourself so that you develop a good understanding of your personality and your needs.
And of course, understanding yourself better goes hand in hand with spending time alone exploring your inner workings.
What are the benefits of enjoying your own company?
Learning to enjoy your own company is necessary for a happy and contented life and has many benefits.
Leads to greater self-love
One way we cultivate self-love is by getting to know ourselves better and exploring our inner workings. Spending time in your own company allows for just that and helps you foster a greater sense of self-love.
The more time you spend in your own company, the more you come to know yourself and the better you become at loving yourself.
Related: “5 Ways to Kickstart Your Self Love Journey Today”
Allows for a better understanding of yourself
Spending time with yourself is the best way to gain a better understanding of yourself. That’s because it provides you the space to explore your own unique interests, talents, personality, and inner voice.
With this greater understanding of yourself, you develop a stronger sense of self-identity and are also better able identify your strengths and weaknesses, as well as areas of your life that you’d like to change or improve.
Related: “10 Major Benefits of Self Reflection (+ FREE Questions to Get Started Today)”
Helps you discover what matters most to you
When you spend time in your own company, it allows you to reconnect with yourself and explore what actually matters most to you.
By contrast, when you’re always surrounded by others, it can sometimes prove difficult to not be swayed by their opinions and interests and lose sight of your own intentions and what’s actually most important to you, in your life.
Related: “Are You Making Time for What Matters Most in Life?”
Fosters personal growth
Solo time to focus inward and examine your intentions, emotions, and choices you are making, provides clarity in your decision-making and can have a positive effect on the trajectory of your life.
You become better able to align your choices with the person you want to be and this in turn fosters the personal growth you want to see for yourself.
Pushes you to become more independent and confident
The more time you spend in your own company, the more adept you will become at figuring things out by yourself, without having to rely on others.
It might feel scary the first time you do something new by yourself, but as you set new goals for yourself and small wins add up in your mind, the more confident you become that you’ve got your back and can accomplish what you set out to do.
Related: “Is Confidence a Skill? (6 Important Ways to Improve Your Confidence)”
Gives you the opportunity to recharge
We all get pulled in many directions each day. Between the demands that may come from being a mom, career, family, and household responsibilities, it can be a lot.
It’s important to create balance in your life and also sometimes necessary to tune out the outside world and spend some time with your inner world.
Enjoying your own company gives you the opportunity to recharge your soul so you can come back to all the areas of your life rejuvenated and able to bring the best of you to it.
Related: “12 Intentional Ways to Take Care of Your Soul”
How can you love your own company?
Now that we’re clear on the importance and benefits that come from spending time alone, I have 3 tips that can help you begin to embrace enjoying your own company.
1. Understand that being alone is not the same as being lonely
Being lonely is distinctly different than being alone so it’s important not to confuse the two.
You can feel lonely while surrounded by many people, as loneliness is a state of mind in which you feel negatively about being by yourself and not having the ability to connect with others. Whereas, being alone is simply the lack of other people in your physical space.
Perhaps if you can remember the distinction, spending time alone won’t feel so intimidating.
2. Start small
If don’t want to spend an entire day by yourself or you’re not comfortable sitting alone in a restaurant, then start with small amounts of solo time. It’s important to do what feels comfortable for you. This will be different for everyone.
For example, you may find that you enjoy your own company so much that you regularly choose to go out to dinner at a restaurant by yourself or even go on a solo vacation. While someone else may desire a lesser degree of solitude and instead opt for a solo movie date every once in a while or a daily walk in the park by themself.
Meet yourself where you are currently and build from there if needed.
3. Do what you enjoy
Spend your solo time engaging in activities that you normally like doing. Take the time to enjoy your hobbies or use the opportunity to explore new interests and passions.
If you’re unsure what to do, think about how you like to spend time while in the company of others. Could you do that same thing by yourself?
Depending on what it is, it’s likely you’ll still find it enjoyable and will also get the chance to connect with yourself.
Related: “Why Hobbies for Moms Matter (+ 5 Tips to Find Yours)”
65 Enjoy Your Own Company Quotes:
To inspire and motivate you to see the beauty of being alone, here are 65 inspirational quotes to enjoy your own company:
1. “Sometimes you need to sit lonely on the floor in a quiet room in order to hear your own voice and not let it drown in the noise of others.” -Charlotte Eriksson
2. “I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.” -Audrey Hepburn
3. “You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.” -Wayne W. Dyer
4. “It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone—so far.” – Marilyn Monroe
5. “Many people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don’t find themselves at all.” -Rollo May
6. “The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself.” -Steve Maraboli
7. “Learn to enjoy your own company. You are the one person you can count on living with for the rest of your life.” -Ann Richards
8. “Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.” – Paulo Coelho
9. “If you’re lonely when you’re alone you’re in bad company.” – Jean-Paul Sartre
10. “In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.” -Rollo May
11. “Introverts live in two worlds: We visit the world of people, but solitude and the inner world will always be our home.” -Jenn Granneman
12. “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret of happiness. Then if you’re not a good mixer you can always fall back on your own company.” -Robert Morley
13. “I’d rather live in the dark alone than to be with a company who leaves me in the dark.” -Clyde Quiñonez
14. “When you learn to love your own company, you become far more careful about whom you spend your time with.” -Katrina Mayer
15. “You must learn to love yourself and your own company. As for others, there is no guarantee. You have only yourself for certain, until the last breath.” -Jodi Daynard
16. “To love ourselves is to act respectfully toward ourselves, to enjoy our own company when in solitude, to honor our limits, and speak our truths.”-Anodea Judith
17. “What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” -Ellen Burstyn
18. “The things we experience for ourselves when we are alone are much stronger and much fresher.” -Eugène Delacroix
19. “You call it being alone. I call it enjoying my own company.” -Unknown
20. “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them, and their value will never be known. Improve them, and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
21. “Some steps need to be taken alone. It’s the only way to really figure out where you need to go and who you need to be.” -Mandy Hale
22. “Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it’s a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.” -Kazuo Ishiguro
23. “It is hard to earn the respect of others when you do not respect yourself. Others may find it difficult to enjoy your company if you do not enjoy your own.” -Susan C. Young
24. “Take a hard look at what you fill your days with and find ways to slow down. Find time to be quiet, to hear less noise, and to enjoy your own company.” -Meg Meeker
25. “Once you know how to take care of yourself, company becomes an option and not a necessity.” -Keanu Reeves
26. “You won’t be important to other people all the time, and that’s why you have to be important to yourself. Learn to enjoy your own company. Take care of yourself. Encourage positive self-talk – and become your own support system. Your needs matter, so start meeting them yourself. Don’t rely on others” -Vex King
27. “Solitude. The very sound of this word is full of thoughtfulness, wisdom, hidden strength, and inner power. Solitude is a state of being alone without being lonely, it is about enjoying your own company.” -Anna LeMind
28. “Do not let a day go by without taking some time for yourself.” -Napoleon Hill
29. “If you can’t be alone and enjoy your own company, don’t expect anybody else to enjoy your company either.” -Eddie M. Connor Jr.
30. “Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
31. “If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.” -James A. Michener
32. “Knowing you can enjoy your own company is a vital precursor to being able to enjoy other people’s company without feelings of panic or neediness. And valuing your own company precedes believing that you can matter to other people in much the same way they matter to you.” -Stephanie Dowrick
33. “Mastery generally requires the ability to not only tolerate but also enjoy your own company.” Mokokoma Mokhonoana
34. “If you make friends with yourself, you’ll never be alone.” -Maxwell Maltz
35. “But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” -Bell Hooks
36. “Being brave enough to be alone frees you up to invite people into your life because you want them and not because you need them.” -Mandy Hale
37. “Solitude is where one discovers one is not alone.” -Marty Rubin
38. “If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.” -Michael Bassey Johnson
39. “You are who you are when nobody’s watching.” -Stephen Fry
40. “A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?” -Albert Einstein
41. “I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone.” -Marilynne Robinson
42. “It’s never loneliness that nibbles away at a person’s insides, but not having room inside themselves to be comfortably alone.” -Rachel Sontag
43. “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” -Robert Morely
44. “A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy can live.”– Bertrand Russell
45. “The trouble is not really in being alone, it’s being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don’t you think?”― Christine Feehan
46. “At a stage in my life where I am slowly learning to enjoy my own company. Keeping my circle small and stop entertaining unnecessary things that can’t grow my mind.” -Hopal Green
47. “When you are exhausted and lonesome, your past version could regain control. So get your rest and love the heck out of your own company.” – Christine E. Szymanski
48. “My imagination functions much better when I don’t have to speak to people.” – Patricia Highsmith
49. “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden
50. “A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
51. “In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” – Albert Camus
52. “The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” – Michel de Montaigne
53. “I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” – Henry David Thoreau
54. “Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.” – Criss Jami,
55. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
56.“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” – Charles Bukowski
57. “This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” – Hunter S. Thompson
58. “I had been alone more than I could have been had I gone by myself.” – Sylvia Plath
59. “She understood how a world jammed with phones, email, and faxes could still leave you feeling utterly alone.” – Jodi Picoult
60. “Whenever I’m with other people, part of me shrinks a little. Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company.” – Alan Bradley
61. “You don’t have to be part of a couple to be happy, you know.” – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
62. “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius
63. “Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” – Lao Tzu
64. “You only grow when you are alone.” – Paul Newman
65. “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” – May Sarton
Have these 65 quotes inspired you to want to enjoy your own company more?
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Carly is a wife, mom, and former NYC fashion industry executive turned writer and life coach. Through her writings on littlevoicebigmatter.com, she shares practical advice, heartfelt insights, and actionable resources to inspire and support women in motherhood, relationships, wellness, and life. Carly also helps women create better balance in their lives and live with more joy, purpose, and connection every day through her coaching.
Fabulous post! From someone who lives alone now, your insightful writing and several quotes
have given me more confidence and optimism about alone time, especially hard sometimes when by natureI am an extrovert.
Thank you Carly