If you’re never alone, you only ever meet yourself as a reaction to other people.

Company shapes you more than you notice. In a group you are always responding, adjusting your volume, reading the room, and the person who shows up is partly a product of who is standing there. Without some time by yourself you never find out what you think before it has been shaped by somebody’s face. Solitude is not loneliness, and you need a little of the first to recognise yourself.

Take half an hour this week with no people and no feed, which means your phone in another room. Walk, or just sit. Notice which thoughts arrive when there is nobody to perform for.