“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Blaise Pascal

There’s a key word in this quote.

Alone.

In our modern culture, solitude and boredom are synonyms.

Being by yourself is seen as boring.

Depressing.

There must be something wrong with you.

This comes from a linguistic problem.

Unfortunately, people mix ‘loneliness’ with ‘solitude’.

There is, however, a clear difference between both.

‘Loneliness’ is what most people think of regarding being alone.

Something undesirable.

Objectively negative.

On the other end of the stick, there is ‘solitude’.

A voluntary act.

Choosing to be alone because you truly enjoy it.

If we have a culture that rejects this idea, there’s a reason for it:

It’s hard to be truly alone nowadays.

We’re almost always connected to the internet.

Receiving constant stimuli.

Short-form videos, messages, memes, news, provocative dances etc.

This has been the reality of many for years.

The problem with it: neuroplasticity.

Our brain reorganizes itself to learn new behaviors.

If we do something repeatedly, it understands it’s important to do it.

Therefore, it adjusts its neurocircuitry to incorporate the behavior.

In other words:

We have been teaching our brains to seek constant stimuli for years.

The result: brains that cannot focus.

Ask yourself what would be easier for most people today:

Reading a book or watching TikTok videos?

No need to answer.

The point is that having such a brain has consequences.

As perfectly described by Swedish educator Inger Enkvist:

“Some young people have become accustomed to never being alone and have developed an extreme dependence on their friends, something that reduces their concentration on studies. With the phone and permanently connected to the internet, they’re always available to friends, which leads to a scattering of concentration, negative for important efforts. Goethe himself used to say that “Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,” that is, to develop talent, the young person must withdraw from the “noise of the world” and prefabricated entertainment. Precisely the opposite of the current trend, in which young people are not alone even at home, as they are always in contact with friends, entertained and amused. There are young people who send between fifty and one hundred messages a day to their friends’ phones. They are “entertained” and “amused” in the sense of directed to a goal other than education, inaccessible to intellectual work, which requires long-term concentration and effort.” (pg. 102 of the book Educación: Guía para perplejos)

Pay attention to the end:

“Inaccessible to intellectual work, which requires long-term concentration and effort.”

That’s why learning demands solitude.

Because, as the French saying goes, « choisir c’est renoncer ».

To choose is to renounce.

Spending time with another language daily is a choice.

But a choice that can only be made by renouncing a thousand others.

This ins’t easy, especially with a brain that craves stimuli.

But again, as Inger Enkvist said:

**“When a student learns something, understanding is by no means automatic, but the result of an effort.” (pg. 106)

The same thing that caused the problem will bring the solution:

Neuroplasticity.

Your brain has been trained to seek entertainment, but it can be trained to love studying.

And the easiest and quickest way to do this is to be in environments that direct you towards it.

As Inger said:

“If there is no **human environment that serves as a stimulus for the student, it is difficult for the student to maintain interest.” (pg. 91)

Create this human environment for yourself.

That’s exactly what I did with the internet during the pandemic.

And it’s precisely what allowed me to learn 4 languages quickly.

I deleted my Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) accounts.

I replaced them all with HelloTalk and Tandem.

It means I stopped keeping up with the lives of everyone I knew.

I unsubscribed from all YouTube channels unrelated to my goals.

I prioritized native speakers and teachers of the language I was learning.

I put everything I could in the language.

Music, podcasts, websites, videos: only in the language.

I gave up news, memes, gossip, series, movies, and games of the moment.

Eventually, my brain got used to the lack of stimuli.

That’s why the stimulus I received when I understood something in the language was incredible.

I had reconditioned my brain to see contact with the language as a game.

A kind of video game where, when I understood, I earned points.

“Points” that converted into understanding interesting content.

Being able to make friends from other countries.

Reading books that interested me and had no translation.

Finding out amazing artists and music.

Being able to better help my English students at the time.

Throughout this process, solitude was essential.

You don’t need to delete everything like I did.

But you need to at least reduce the stimuli.

Only then will your brain be reconditioned.

For this, here are some practical tips:

• Redirect 80% of your idle time (bus, subway, Uber, shower, shopping, etc.) to your goal with podcasts, videos, books, etc.;
• Schedule blocks of time in advance to be alone (free of distractions!!!);
• Be patient. People don’t get addicted to social media overnight. Nor do they become masters of studying.
• Delete everything you can from your digital life that doesn’t help you. The internet should enrich your real life, not become it.
• Prioritize your sleep above all. Learning is consolidated in sleep, so make sure you sleep well every night.

In case you don’t know, I talked about this in more detail in the last livestream I did on YouTube.

Here’s the link:

https://www.youtube.com/live/f6JHOSL72FM?si=DvALEFdBa3oMgv_v

Now, leave this newsletter and organize yourself to have more solitude.

It holds unimaginable treasures for you.

I guarantee it.