We Only Learn When We Repeat.

Before we could enjoy a free, secular modern education, religions were the one that dominated pedagogy and literacy all over the planet. Religions were the ones that taught people basic concepts about ethics, purpose and the meaning of life.

Not saying here that religions ever knew the nuance of how the brain functioned (thank God!), but they had an extensive experience in how knowledge was created and one thing they knew for sure: "anything one pour in will quickly be lost in our perforated memories."

Reason why all religions were and are obsessed with repetition. All of them, daily, weekly, they go through their basic precepts, over and over. They knew, early enough that we only learn when we repeat.

Exactly the reverse we are doing nowadays in any educational system. Naive enough, we pour infinite, fundamental and endless knowledge only once, expecting it to be kept in our capricious memory, paying a "heavy price for our lack of interest in rehearsing lessons and ideas."

I am not a religious person myself, but, if we really want to learn any abstract new concept, we need to steal the idea of repetition from religions and create our own cycles of rehearsed knowledge.

Want to be more empathetic? Practice it daily. Want to be more patient, you practice being patient over and over again. Don't expect to watch (only once) a 20 minutes video of Brené Brown about vulnerability and expect to embody how to be vulnerable. It doesn't work that way my friend.