Lupita Nyong’o bought herself a silent retreat for her birthday

Silence truly is golden for Lupita Nyong’o.

Rather than go out with friends to celebrate her birthday and the success of “Black Panther,” Nyong’o treated herself to a 10-day silent retreat.

“It was a gift. I did it for my birthday. And it was the best gift because, the thing is, my job has two main parts. There’s the acting, and there’s the celebrity,” she told Marie Claire’s March 2019 issue. “And the celebrity involves a lot of giving. After talking so much, and just expend, expending, expending, to sit with myself and just listen. Our lives are so full of distractions; you go from one distraction to another.”

Of course, the 35-year-old actress thought about ditching the Texas-based retreat but couldn’t because she handed over her phone, didn’t have a car and signed an agreement to stay.

“I was constantly wanting to leave and then daring myself to take one more hour and another hour. And oh my God, it was crazy and beautiful, because after the 10 days, it wasn’t talking that I missed,” she shared. “The heart of the program is about unclutching from attachments to pleasure and aversion, the idea that we attach to things that we love and to things we dislike. And our identities are built on assembling these things to basically write the stories of our lives, but learning to unclutch from that control makes it easier to live, to exist.”

Immediately following the retreat, the Oscar-winning actress turned on her favorite album at the behest of her friend who had recommended the getaway in the first place.

“And I listened to Kendrick Lamar, his album ‘Damn.’ Usually I listen to music and it’s backdrop. But after that retreat, I was able to focus solely on that and for it to fill my existence in that moment,” Nyong’o explained. “I listened to him on the flight back to New York. I loved the music, but rap sometimes comes at me too fast and I’m not really able to hear it fully. But this time, I heard every word Kendrick Lamar said.”

She added, “It was like clarity. And I was just, like, wow. I imagine that people sometimes get that from drugs. But it was really nice to get that just from spending time with myself.”

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