Let’s be clear… I’ve been waking up early for most of my life.
It wasn’t just some productivity hack or trendy morning routine. It wasn’t to “win the morning” like those self-help gurus preach. I simply discovered something sacred in those quiet hours before the world stirs to life. While others were fumbling for their first coffee, desperately trying to shake off sleep, I was already sitting in stillness… meditating, journaling, breathing, reflecting.
For 25 years, that was my rhythm. My anchor. My constant.
But recently, after a breakup that didn’t just hurt me but cracked me wide open – something fundamental shifted.
That morning stillness, which had always been a form of maintenance, suddenly transformed into medicine.
It wasn’t about grounding anymore. It was about survival. About crawling through the grief, weathering the identity death, fighting the crushing waves of depression. It became about stripping away everything I thought I was supposed to be, and sitting face-to-face with who I actually am… raw and unfiltered beneath all the layers.
And you know what? What most people take years to process, I moved through in months.
Not because I’m special or built differently. But because I had the courage to meet my pain in stillness, head-on, without flinching.
Solitude Isn’t an Escape. It’s the Real Work.
Rumi once said, “Don’t go back to sleep.” I think he was talking about this exact moment, when the world falls silent and your soul finally finds its voice.
The brutal truth is that we avoid this moment – most of us, anyway. We’d rather mindlessly scroll through social media or hustle our way through endless tasks than sit alone with our own thoughts, our own heartbeats.
But solitude isn’t empty space to be feared. It’s honest space to be embraced.
It’s where the real inner work happens. Where the carefully constructed armor begins to crack. Where grief finally moves through you instead of staying stuck. Where clarity drops in like an unexpected visitor. And if you can stay there long enough—not run, not distract, not numb – you’ll start to remember who you actually are underneath all the noise we call modern life.
Men Especially… You Need This
Let’s not sugar-coat it or dance around the truth.
As men, we’re not exactly taught how to be with ourselves. We’re conditioned to grind, to provide, to fix, to protect. And that programming works fine right up until life kicks you square in the chest and none of those tools work anymore.
That’s where solitude steps in.
Not as a retreat from life – but as a return to it.
The silence has taught me more about love, identity, purpose, and pain than any self-help book, spiritual retreat, or profound conversation ever has. Because in that silence, I wasn’t learning from someone else’s truth… I was finally hearing my own.
Try This Tomorrow
Here’s the invitation – just one morning:
- Wake up early. Like, before the sun even thinks about rising.
- No phone. No stimulation. Just you and the quiet.
- Sit. Breathe. Journal. No rules or structure – just raw, unfiltered honesty.
- Feel everything. Don’t try to fix it. Don’t suppress it. Just witness it.
- Repeat the next day. And the next. Until something inside you shifts.
It will. That’s not motivational bullshit… that’s a promise from someone who’s walked this path.
The Courage to Face Yourself
If you’re going through a breakup, a death, a dark night of the soul – don’t run from it. Don’t cover the pain with noise or distraction or someone new.
Sit in it. Let it burn through you completely. Then watch in wonder at what rises from those ashes.
The truth of who you are doesn’t scream for attention. It whispers – and can only be heard in silence.
So wake up while the world sleeps. Sit down with yourself. And don’t you dare go back to sleep.
Big Love,
Dino