How to Be Happy In Isolation

Susan Smillie was an established journalist and editor at the British publication, The Guardian, when she gave it all up and went to sea alone on a small boat.  She wanted a simpler life, she says in her essay “I Live Alone At Sea.  Here’s How To Be Happy in Isolation.”  So she “ended up crossing the Channel to France, sailing down the Atlantic coast to Portugal, into the Mediterranean, through Spain and Italy to Greece.”  Even though she thought she had her dream job at the newspaper, her new life on the ocean was “magical” and “nourishing.”  She realized, early on, that people can change their behavior; in fact, it is easier than one might think.

A sailor alone on the open sea faces myriad dangers, but there are secret and profound joys:  the first cup of tea in the morning; the light at sunset; a good dinner.  The biggest challenge in her isolated existence, for Smillie, was boredom.  However, she relished her small cozy sleeping cabin below deck, especially when the wind was howling outside and rain slashed the decks.

One surprising discovery involved limiting internet use.  She knew that too much screen time was bad, so she would only log on briefly for news reports, social media, and streaming music to lift her spirits.  Increasingly, she spent the majority of her downtime on “nourishing things that can’t fail—books, cloudspotting, writing, growing herbs…and exercise,” mainly stretching because of the cramped space.  She also embraced the joys of cooking and experimenting with the ingredients she could procure.

“I have become my own living proof that you need very little to be extremely happy,” she writes.  “We humans are incredibly resourceful and we do adapt.  Fear and its symptoms—panic and anxiety—are normal responses to danger and uncertainty.”  Instead, Smillie relies on gut instinct and intuition.  She learned to react quickly to a storm front blowing in and whitecap waves rocking the boat.  When we are in a crisis, she says, “we cope, recover and learn.”  She cautions us to pay attention, especially when our normal routines are upended.  She advises us to “see clearly what’s important and…disregard irrelevance.”  In the end, we will be surprised at what “we can face, with grace, courage, humor…”

Because we can only communicate over a wireless connection with those we love who live elsewhere during the COVID-19 experience, we must seize upon and find comfort in the smallest human contact.  Smillie says to never underestimate that—the sound of a voice over the phone is now precious to us.

Quitting one’s job, or worse, being furloughed or fired, means reduced financial well-being and threats to health and welfare.  Smillie knew she would be facing reduced circumstances when she left the paper.  For those having to survive on less, she has important advice:  “Things will be tight for many of us newly without income.”  She advocates reducing spending and breaking down our “addiction to consumption.”  But she believes “We have the reserves to adapt and find happiness.”  Out on the open ocean, she revels in the beauty of nature—“the birds that fly around the harbor at sunset, the fish nibbling the quay, the crabs scuttling below.”

Probably the most positive change she sees in this pandemic is the natural world reasserting itself due to reduction in our activity:  lower pollution levels, less traffic, more time to spend with families.  “We are becoming aware that this is a chance for real change,” she writes, “and that is the biggest positive of all.”