Nevermind the darkness, it’s meditation time. A gong signals the 4.30am mediation session that will awaken the first day’s focus on breath. That’s it. Focus on your breath. Don’t talk to your neighbour about it or ask questions about your blocked nose, just breath. The simplicity of the instruction may feel incredibly futile for beginners. The truth is, a silence retreat is not for new starters. Know how to focus on your breath, know how to keep still for many, many, minutes without turning your back into knots. Know how to just be. Expect at least a few days of this, on repeat.

There are many shortcuts in life, but to train your brain you need put in effort. The first few days can be challenging because the work is both mindless and extremely taxing. But with discipline and practice, you will see a change, even if it’s not what you expect.

Don’t worry about the long days of silence if spiders are not your thing. Because you’ll have bigger things to worry about. In most silent retreats, you have to agree to abide by certain precepts: no killing, no stealing, no lying, no sex, no intoxicants, no writing, no eye contact, no communicating. Arachnophobes be warned; silence retreats are often based in the wilderness and spiders may join you in meditation, in your room, in your bathroom sink, and there is no harming them. Some places offer a spider catcher, usually a plastic container and a piece of paper to slide under it for easy transport of the critter.

Studies have shown that people who are blind or deaf have heightened ability in other bodily senses. When the brain is deprived of one input source, it is capable of reorganising itself to support and augment other senses, a phenomenon known as cross-modal neuroplasticity. So when you go silent, and hear little because you’re around other silent people, other senses may be magnified. For some that’s a terrifying experience, and for others it’s enlightenment.

In silence, your mind may distort the reality you perceive. You don’t know the lives and background of the people taking the course with you – and nor may you talk about it – but many create lives for them in their minds. We often project our own fears and insecurities on others, even in our mind, and this is amplified in silence. Try to avoid creating inaccurate stories about the other participants, and if you must, then assume the best for them.

You may emerge from the retreat a calmer, less anxious version of yourself. The experience may help with insomnia, it may unravel your brain and reorganise it or bring out feelings, fears and dreams you never imagined. For the modern person, no matter from which generation, being silent – completely and utterly silent – is not as easy at it sounds. And to sit in silence – no Netflix, no books, no Instagram and no Spotify – is the greatest challenge of all. For many, a silent retreat doesn’t end as it closes, and many leave with new parts of themselves to work on and things to conquer.