The Need to be Alone 

We upload new films every week. Remember to subscribe and turn on notifications to be sure not to miss any. Download our app: goo.gl/VtcAfJ

You dont realize how addictive being alone is.

"If you feel lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company" - Paul Sartre

Introverts unite! ... quietly, in our rooms, via the internet.

Socialisation is very draining, it’s only natural to feel the need to be alone. I’m neither sorry nor embarrassed about the amount of time I choose to be alone over being around other people.

This animation is extraordinary!

It's better to be alone than badly accompanied...life's too short to waste time with people that bore you and there's so much to learn and improve about yourself when you have time to do this alone without the daily distractions. So yes there are true pros in loving your own company

Being by yourself and feeling depressed is loneliness; being by yourself and feeling good is solitude. The latter is what we seek when we want time to ourselves.

People are exhausting, and I'm sure they find me so, too. I long ago stopped making excuses for spending the vast majority of my time away from work alone, because it's necessary to my life and sanity.

Being alone is like learning an art, one has to practice it to master it. Unlucky are those who never experience what being alone feels like. Each day, everyone of us gets that chance to be alone, but we freak out, we misunderstand it with loneliness, we unlock our phones. Game over.

While I have friends and family, and enjoy seeing them, I also love being alone, and going places by myself. My family thinks I'm a bit odd, but I enjoy it.

Why do i need to be alone? Because that way, I can feel my own emotions better and drown in them. No one can interfere with my mind and emotion. Only me and myself. Alone...

this was beautiful also same

Being alone teaches you a lot more about your inner self.. the true self that gets lost with so much more going on outside! I love it!

Solitude is required to be a better person hence a better friend/ brother/son etc.. this is what I feel every time I withdraw from social gatherings. Well done!

This video said it SO well. I've been trying to help my boyfriend understand why I want alone time so badly. People who don't share this trait take the need for alone time very personally and it really sucks because all we're trying to do is be ok, just like everyone else. It sucks when someone you love misinterprets it as a statement about them, thinking that you don't like spending time with them or something, when that couldn't be further from the truth. But we should never compromise our deepest needs. I hope this video can help him understand, I just shared it. Thank you for making this!

Thank you The School of Life! Just spent a long weekend with my girlfriend's family and am now on the train home, doing precisely what you said: analyzing every single moment, and feeling somewhat anxious and upset with my myself for over analyzing everything, and thinking I am a strange person for doing so. To have you guys tell me it's okay, and not only that but it's necessary.. feels incredibly reassuring. Thank you so much. Also, loved the artwork!

It's not just being alone that is important for us to flesh out our complete emotional selves. It's being able to introspect. Spending days alone but on our phone/tablet/computer, glued to social media is hardly different from being at a party, engaged in a multitude of superficial interactions. We shouldn’t forget to disconnect -physically AND mentally. This can be through mindful meditation, journaling or just spending time at a park by our selves. This will absolutely bring out the best in you.

I've spent the most amount of time alone these past few months than I ever have during my time in college and I feel like I've grown as a person. I've always been the person to be around for every event and to generally always be out and about. I pushed this limit towards the end of 2017 and lost myself if I'm being honest. Going out everyday, partying too much, being with people almost every waking hour, took a huge toll on me. There is a peace in being alone that I can't quite explain. It brings me back to my reality, it helps me analyze myself and how I treat others, and it generally helps me grow as a person. I recently started reading this book called Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and in it he exclaims that many people want to "escape" from the world by going to foreign places or doing foreign things when all it takes to escape from what burdens you is to be with your own self. Society likes to push this idea that it's not okay to be alone and that's just not true. Thank you for this video. Excellent as always.

This makes a lot of sense. I put my feelings into everything when I’m out in public. I try to empathize and get involved and see other people’s views but at some point I just shut off because I need to be ALONE. I need to recharge lol

Yessss this is everything! I’ve hurt myself unnecessarily because I forced myself to be social and to be a “certain” way when I really didn’t want to, in order to avoid being seen as rude or disrespectful. Now I no longer care and will put my needs and sanity before everything else. I love my solitude 💕

"Unless we've had time to be alone, we can't be who we'd like to be around our fellow humans." Wow, that hits the nail on the head.

I cannot get over the production on this video. Hats off to the puppet makers/scene designers etc. You absolutely killed it. Great message, as always, @theschooloflife , and well done for giving talented people an outlet.

Watching this as I sit in my room, alone, taking my day away from my friends and university colleagues. Thank you school of life, for understanding.

A lot of people dislike and distrust people who like to be alone. Especially social dragonflies. I have firsthand experience with this.

Sometimes a book is a better companion than people

I find that those who are not themselves during social interactions feel the need to be alone afterwards the most, because it cost them so much energy to be somebody else.

I'm so glad I found this channel. I've been having so much trouble with my life, and I dont know what to do to fix it, i'm getting to the end of my rope.

Ever since I was a kid I couldn’t stand being around crowds, I can literally feel my energy draining. But I can be very social if I really need to be, *I absolutely love my alone time.*

I'm alone right now... and I love it.

"I don't hate people. I just feel better when they're not around" - Charles Bukowski

If I tell people I want to be alone, they think that I just don't like them, or that there's something wrong with me. But in truth, I feel the most content when I'm by myself.

being alone... to reflect when it's time to come out - it means that time was spent on reflection and you are filled to the brim - like a sponge and ready to go dancing again

While I'm alone, I know my best friends are the surrouding things :0

this needs to be a need in the sims 5

I'm incredibly grateful I have a small group of friends that understand when I just need to leave. I don't have to make an excuse, I just tell them I need to be alone. And they still love me regardless. :-D

Lmfao I’m on holiday with a friend right now and I love her to death but I need to be alone for a while. I can’t wait to be home and just be by myself for a while lol

THIS. IS. ME. There are no words again to fully describe how well this relates to me. Since Sunday, I've just been in a thinking state. But I've had to go to work and go to school, with no time to myself. And today, still in the thinking state, I wasn't able to fully immerse myself to my friends' conversations and everything else in general. Having alone time is so valuable to me. I wish people would understand I'm not trying to be rude. I just don't want to give (pardon my language) half-assed conversations. If someone I excited, I want to join them in their excitement. And if someone is upset, I want to be emotionally capable of handling what they throw at me. One day ;3;

I'm so thankful to God that I've learned the value of living alone in very early days of my life. I feel sorry for those who can't differentiate "being alone" from "being lonely"

Innately we are all alone and that is a fact whether we like it or not. If we embrace it rather than running away from it, we will find our true self that does not need to be gratified by external exhaustive means.

I quickly and continuously fell in love with the animation, and the narration. I just cant imagine how long this took.

Ummm.....this video was TOO GOOD. Informative auditory AND visual excellence is more than I can handle. 😉👍🏾

Who you really are is sometimes only shown to you when you are alone. These are the moments when you can really think for yourself without anyones pressure, opinions and interruptions (provided that you are honest to yourself). And if you want to get to know yourself better, there's no other way than to listen to yourself when you are alone. It is the same concept behind mindfulness and meditation. :)

I love the saying, '...a bore is someone who deprives you of your solitude without providing you with company...'

As an introvert alone time is bliss for me.

As I have gotten older, I realized that alone time is really necessary. There's so much pressure from being in social situations. I like to be around ppl but, then I need that time to recharge in my solitude. Now and days there are things I want to get better at, focus on, and catch up with. Being around ppl a lot you can't usually do that and, like the video stated, you can definitely loose your sense of self and be overwhelmed by all that is going on. It's just so peaceful being to your self.

I can't live without this channel

I think this is my favorite one to date. It's such a beautiful thought that instead of berating ourselves for needing to be alone, we can make space for it as a time to process.

at 2:57 as he took off his red glasses, a bit of red also flashed before the camera, and I think the effort to put that as a part of our perspective in this film is just incredible.

I almost lost my friends because they didn't understand my need...i'm glad that i'm not the only one that needs alone time. Thank you

This is one if the best of your videos! It's beautiful and the animation is so well made :)

The way this video is done is DIVINE! Thanks to the creators.

One of the best videos ever. It has made me understand a lot about myself in just minutes, a whole lot of truth in every word.

Many people start off wanting company all the time but after awhile things get tedious so they rather be alone, props to those people who party every day and keep up the same discussions over and over again, everything is interesting to them

I’ve never felt so understood by a RU-vid video. I come back here often 🙏😊

This is getting ready for me...i spend that time listening to these kinds of videos while straightening my hair and all that. I feel so calm and comfortable

I have never, in my entire life, watched a single video that explained me so well.

You guys probably see this on just about every video but for me tonight, this video came at the perfect time. I don't know how it happens, nor do I know why but it's always when someone needs it most. Thank God for watching over me.

I had to watch this twice because I didn't listen to a single word the first time. The video is absolutely captivating. Well done!

Just wanted to say thank you- to the artists. This obviously has so much effort and care put into a couple minutes. Thank you so much for this beautiful artwork.

I'm always amazed by how much your videos can reach me and calm me. I'm sure it's the same for many others. You've got such a deep understanding of human nature. Thank you very much for this!!!

This is beyond amazing. Thank you for this. I honestly feel so enlightened and my understanding of myself has truly been enhanced. Thank you!

The creativity involved in making variety amongst all these videos is incredible

This video is pure art

I always need my time alone and will tell family. Everyone needs it.

When I'm with people or with friends or to someone, I feel lonely. But when I'm alone, I don't feel lonely.

i love being alone so much

“Because our culture places such a high value on sociability, it can be deeply awkward to have to explain how much - at certain points - we need to be alone. We may try to pass off our desire as something work-related: people generally understand a need to finish off a project. But in truth, it’s a far less respectable and more profound desire that is driving us on: unless we are alone, we are at risk of forgetting who we are...” Wonderful.

School of life is full of wisdom!

Simply beautiful.

Perfect timing.

You know how rare it is for me to find some one like this. No one likes me for me. I really needed this video today. Thank you so much! This video nearly has me in tears.

This video is gold

"How to be a better friend and an attentive companion" Yup

visually, one of the best videos EVER!

Oh my gosh, I can't believe I found a video that explains exactly how I feel everyday. I actually tried to explain to someone months ago how being with people constantly takes me away from being with myself, and my own thought processes. Because I like how I think; more so than how the majority of the world thinks, where people often think "me first" and "I need everything now, because nothing takes time and that person's job is so easy they should have things done instantly". And just immersing myself into a world of greed, vanity, where everything seems to be getting taken over by sex and lust; and where people often seek to boost their egos by boasting, being loud (ecen at the expense of others, ans thinking that they will be more well liked as they seek out attention and praise all of the time); and also how people so often look for joy in buying more stuff (or having to get the most expensive luxurious items instead of similar items that might not look as flashy but are still good enough to enjoy (and taking a moment to yourself so that you have the CHANCE to fully ovserve, process, and enjoy the simple things without having someone distracting you as they flood you with their thoughts, and telling you how they think, and getting immersed into those ideas instead of enjoying your own thoughts (I love how I see the world in a surreal dream sense that is very difficult to convey to other people. It makes it very difficult for me to enjoy my experience of the world when somebody doesn't understand it, and so you feel awkward as you try to fully immerse yourself in your own enjoyment, with somebody looking at you and waiting for you to shift their attention back onto them, while they are staring at you like, "Okay, are you good now? Can we start focusing on ME again?" It's just so awkward in general. I even find it difficult to fully concentrate and savor the food that I am eating when someone is talking to me, where I almost feel like I am being rude for zoning out for 5 seconds to enjoy the moment (trying to enjoy the present while they keep taking me away to the worries of the future, and even the past). I need to live in my surreal mind at some point during my day, so that I don't forget how to see the world that way; it brings me so much joy and awe that I am afraid to lose it, for it seems so difficult to explain to others that I'm not sure if I would be able to explain it to myself again if I ever forgot how to seem my view of the world. 💗

I appreciate all the different kind of methods you guys use to tell a story: puppetry, animation, books... This has nothing to do with the video, I just wanted you to know how much I love this

i don’t know why but i just really love this video. i could watch this on repeat for hours

Perfect video. Explains exactly why I just absolutely love my alone time and thrive in it.

This is precisely what I needed to hear

i can't express how much i relate to what have been said

I can relate SO much! This is exactly how I've always described my urge to be alone regularly. And I feel it very strongly.

it feels like The School Of Life knows me better than i do. their deep personal accuracy and understanding, along with all the compassion, is such a ray of sunshine in some dark, dark, days.

The effort put into these videos are mind baffling

Stuart Wilde said, "We need to spend time alone, to not be defined by another person". Thank you for posting.

I do this. I take time to be alone every evening and one full day each week. It is wonderful. The advice and reasons are true.

Man, without this channel, what am i going to do in my free time?

I couldn't agree more. But I don't want t be on my own for tooo long...

these puppets were quite wonderful. kudos to the artist

All I can say is thank you.

I love everything about this video! Thank you!

Thank you

Summary: find a good balance between solitude and sociality. And don't forget being alone is not always a bad thing. That was nice puppetry. Kudos.

I am in shock at the beauty/quality/style/execution of this academy award worthy film. May the school of live continue to capture the wonder and awe of learning by art. Namaste

this is 100% true. you are wise, the school of life. this explains 100% why I prefer being alone most of the time.

If only I had the ways and means to articulate this for myself 25 years ago. Rather than explain why I need my alone time, I'm going to share this video ti anyone who asks me why, for them to spend 3 mins understanding me from a third party's perspective without interjection which leaves me more time to spend on me short term, but them in the long term. Great work, thank you!

I’m alone now. The rest are asleep and I’m enjoying my solitude. It feels so good to be alone.

I'm so glad I found a video that describes me far better than I ever could, Thanks.

this videos are always timely in my life

Yes indeed! I try explaining this to my friends! Being alone helps me recharge !