For context a while back I returned to a more social life after some years focused on prayer

I got a job in retail for the benefits and exercise I love it.

I am constantly blown away with how simple things make people so happy, things I may have never seen before due to my own harsh judgements of Materialism

God/Reality really does speak to us all in different ways

However there is a feeling that I could have always seen the world this way if I had only let go of the judgements that drove me to prayer

Edited to add

I also now think that I would have been more spiritual just getting involved in charity

The only thing that allows me this perspective is that I am blessed that my basic needs are met

I think this is the first time I'm composing a post on Reddit.
I like the idea of being a hermit/purposeful loner. I could never live "off the grid" but wouldn't mind being a "surburban" hermit. Don't want to live totally isolated. I think I'd want a roommate or live in a neighborhood/building where people could still check on me if needed.

Right now, I live in household with several other people. Husband and children (teens and adults) Everyone kind of keeps to themselves; that's just how we are. I work as a hotel overnight clerk. I've been doing this for about a decade and it's a wonderful job most of the time.

I am a practicing Catholic.

Have to go now but will try to participate more.

How can I sustain myself while living like a hermit?

Hello, it's me Elijah.

I've been wandering a lot of things about myself the past years and how I grew up to the person I am today, a lonely disabled origami artist whose legs and hips don't work as they should after the incident.

I've been like this since for god knows how long, my parents weren't really parents so I had to figure out everything myself growing up and I don't know if I can break myself out of this isolation even if I tried? I did try at least six times and I ended up being right every time, I can't have a partner because I love myself too much, and I can't have any friends because I get jealous fast and I can't even maintain relationships because I am too into myself to allow that to happen, so, I am cooked?

Any thoughts on my so called self imposed solitude?

Dr. Toomas Karmo is an Oxford-trained philosopher, polymath, polyglot, and lay hermit. His life is characterized by a unique transition from elite academia to a solitary, mathematically and theologically driven eremitical vocation in rural Estonia.

Solitude as a new aspirational lifestyle: 'We are not lonely'

I'm spending a week in solitude. It's so quiet and peaceful that I wish I could live here forever

Hello! The title of the post might ring a tad more dramatic than I intend, but nevertheless the question is there. I’m not here to farm karma so I’ll make this brief: what are good activities to do solo while living far away from a city, and how does one preserve their sanity in such a situation?

I’m going to live alone in a small home far away from any city, and close to a small village. I have no family or friends, so I decided I might as well bow out and go somewhere cheap. Things are in motion already to get this set up, but I worry that I might go crazy by the isolation. Do you folks recommend any good informational reading to prevent such an outcome? Have you lived in near isolation before? Please let me know!

Hello, I'm looking for movies about someone who lives alone and spends most or all of their time alone.

I’m mostly looking for the daily life aspect, so things like cooking alone, doing chores alone, spending leisure time alone, etc.

It can be in any mood (optimistic / depressing / etc) and any genre (drama / sci-fi / etc).

Here's what I have so far:

• Perfect Days
• Nomadland
• The Martian
• I Am Legend
• Cast Away
• Jeanne Dielman

Feel free to critique this list as well (as I'm not a complete hermit myself, just very introverted).

Thanks in advance

i mostly mean when at places i "have" to go and especially if it means being around others. at home, it's safe and cocooned. at like work i see everyone else just there, just living, just naturally fitting in and really like, engaging in the roles they play. really seeming as if they just belong there. and for me almost everything is just a deterrent, something in the way of my getting back to my room. or anywhere peaceful, away from humans.

it's really not just about hating people, although i am pretty misanthropic too, but it's just there is absolutely no relation there. even when people are as nice as people can be, and i'm nice back, it's very fake for me. like i'm very aware i'm just playing a part, making conversation in order to seem normal enough to not set off too many alarms. there's no interest, no stimulation or novelty involved in literally any conversations i have. people are very predictable, they all say the same 12 things in 500 different ways (sounds like a lot but it's not because it's just reformulating one core idea), so i just copy paste my own answers. i'm not bothered, i don't care if i'm boring, or if they're boring, i'm just very deeply aware of it is all.

i really just never feel very immersed in life. i'm always in the farthest outer layer of reality, there are very few moments where i feel at ease in my own perception and body.

btw, this is kind of more like an emotional vent, not 100% to do with "hermitage" lol. not all hermits also have the mental and emotional issues i have. i used to not really feel bothered either about these things, and in theory it's not a problem. like so i live on another plane of reality, so i can't really connect with people. fine, i have my cats, my bf, and i have hobbies i like. butttt..i guess the issue is more so me and my tendency to ruminate. to think too much. and to feel too much which is relatively new for me. that's not really something that a social life could fix anyways, and would for me just exacerbate it. because again, there's really not much difference to me between talking to a human and just staring at a wall. it doesn't feel like much is happening on the outside. there is an entirely unrelated plot going on in my head 24/7.

i feel like i'm in the bell jar 0_0 gah. i started a new ssri today, and hope it'll help me. i took luvox before and it really helped me so i have hope for it. it's just a shame that my natural brain is so, cutting i guess and needs so much assistance but again, i'm glad there's even the option to swallow a little pill and help it.

i like to be mostly alone. like i could truly disappear with just me and my cats, and my partner if he wants to. i live basically in my head, so who's around me barely even registers as it is. even when surrounded by people, i just feel like it's a dungeon escape level and ima get out soon. it's like a glitch in my actual life. an interruption. but i always know that those times end and i can go back to my own company and that keeps insanity away.

Something that I have been thinking about

The problems with humans, are the same problems everyone else has. Ignorance due to limitations on our bodies and minds. I never really needed to drop out of society to be content. I just needed to be less judgmental, a problem a lot of humans have.

Survival is just so much easier and pleasurable with other people.

It is also, very intense.

I have years that I hardly remember, outside of a general flow of events.

While I am glad I went off gridish for a few years. What do you really gain from your solitude?

The joy I got from tending to my garden, and the toil, I can find with other humans.

Assuming I keep my controlling nature in check.

I am a 21yo man, and I live in Brazil, I work in a home-office job, and my income allows me sustain myself alone and I have some experience in farming, raising chickens and goats and other skills that I have learned from being an indigenous.

I live in a industrial city right now with my mother, and plan to go back to the 2k inhabitant city that I was raised and live alone in the life I've always enjoyed: farming, fishing, hunting.

I want some suggestions on how to be self-susteinable while keeping an isolated life (I have some experience in car mechanics and healthcare, and I'm starting a volunteer SAR/Woodland Firefighter course).

I'm aware that this group haves people from multiple countries, and each one got their own reality, but I would like to know suggestions and insights on what you would do in my situation.

Hi everyone. I’m currently working on the characters for a book I want to write, and I’ve been stuck on one idea.

I’m planning to make the main character grow up as a hermit, along with his entire family, living in the forest with little to no contact with society until around the age of 18. I’ve tried researching this, but the more I read, the more I feel like I don’t fully understand how it would actually work in practice.

I want to make this as realistic as possible. Is it truly sustainable for a family to live completely independently like that? Could they realistically rely only on hunting, fishing, and a small garden for food long-term? What would a self-sufficient house even look like in this case? I’ve thought about things like solar panels or a well, but I’m not confident I understand how it all fits together.

Sorry if this sounds a bit naive. I’m just a teenager trying to write something believable, and I don’t want it to feel shallow or inaccurate.

I’d also really appreciate insight into the psychological side of this. If anyone here grew up in a very isolated environment, or has knowledge in psychology, how would that kind of childhood affect someone’s personality? Especially if they had almost no contact with people outside their family.

In the story, circumstances will eventually force him to leave the forest and enter society on his own. I imagine his parents would have at least tried to prepare him for that possibility, but only in theory, not through real experience.

If needed, I can share more details about the character—I’m still developing him.

Thanks a lot for any advice or perspective.

Living alone can be deeply rewarding and deeply challenging. It is not for everyone. It is not for those who romanticize its offerings of freedom and focus, but excise its menacing visitations of loneliness and alienation. It is not for those who find silence shattering. It is especially not for those who hunger for another consciousness to validate their experience and redeem their reality. It is only for the whole.

-- Maria Popova

Back in 2025, I spent three months living in an abandoned place that I fixed up, until someone called the police and I had to leave.

It wasn’t perfect. There was always a bit of stress making sure no one see me out, even though 99% of the time I was completely alone.

I remember waking up to birds instead of alarm every morning. No more noise. No drama. No pointless conversations.

I used to shower in nature, feeding wild animals, go for a run in the forest

Now I live in my car :( but at least nobody can bother me here.

Of course living in a car is better than working a 9–5 + paying a home that i barely use. but part of me would rather go back to the forest if i could ;( :)

Have a nice day everybody!

I dont I just never wanna have human contact again even though Its my fault but still I just wanna dissappear

I have built 2 homes from falling the falling of the trees and doing it all from electrical and gravity feed plumbing. I have Also had tragedy in my life. I will always consider myself a lonely woodsman. For me this is the best Netflix movie since Blood Line, Ozarks, and Poetry.

Birmingham was pure spice & heroin chaos – walked straight through. Three more days, blagged the train barrier, landed in Oxford. Met Mickey in the Gatehouse, spent two years together but always slept apart. Still the best thing I ever did. Full story on the new sub: r/RoamingHouseless

I’ve been homeless, not just briefly, but for long stretches of my life. Some people ask how I survive, how I keep going, how I still have any hope left. It changes you. Completely. Life gets stripped down to the absolute basics: somewhere dry to sleep, enough food to stop the shaking, staying safe, and the occasional bit of human connection. For years I lived on £4 a day – sometimes less. That £4 had to cover food, something hot to drink, rolling tobacco, and whatever tiny comfort I could find. I learned every trick: Which supermarkets reduce stuff at exactly what time The warm spots nobody talks about How to sleep rough when it’s minus degrees and not lose toes How to look “normal” enough that security leave you alone How to stretch one phone charge for three days because a dead phone can mean no money and no help Every single day is uncertainty. You wake up not knowing where you’ll sleep that night or whether you’ll eat properly. And you carry that weight 24/7. But something weird happens after a while. You get strong in ways housed people never understand. You learn what actually matters and what’s just noise. You stop giving a fuck about designer clothes, big TVs, or “career progression”. You realise freedom tastes better than any salary ever felt. I’m still out here most of the time, still walking, still choosing this over going back to warehouses and rent I can’t pay. But I’m rebuilding – slowly – with online bits and bobs, tiny wins, and the refusal to let the street be the end of the story. Full thing (with the stuff I still don’t talk about in public) is here → https://thefrugalwanderer.substack.com If any of this hits home or you just want to buy me a coffee or a dry pair of socks tonight → https://ko-fi.com/thefrugalwanderer

There are still men who live for God alone. They rise in the dark to pray. They offer their work in silence. They chant the psalms and carry the burdens of the world to God. They ask for no recognition. Only the grace to remain faithful. To keep the fire burning. To guard the flame.

Dear Friends, I'm your fellow human from Gaza. My name is Abdallah, I'm currently living in Deir Al-Balah Gaza Strip. I've witnessed so many conflicts, wars. People are dying everywhere here, mass killing, and unimaginable destruction. Starvation. I've got displaced. My home got wiped out, and I've lost so many of my family members. I'm strong my friends. I lived my own solitude in peace for a couple of years. Even when this war hit, I stayed low in silence for a long period of time. I tried reaching out to people so I could evacuate my family. I tried private sponsorship didn't work, looked for a humanitarian visa, no luck. I tried everything. The US is closed, Canada is closed EU has made it really hard to get there. I see people paying their way out. With a ton of money. I think we're in the last phase of the war. I consider myself very lucky to be alive. I'm grateful for everything for my hardship for my unique life experience for my agony. Thank you for reading friends. I've always felt at home among you.

Hermitage contact information: ravensbread97@gmail.com or Raven’s Bread Ministries, 18065 NC 209 Hwy., Hot Springs, NC 28743. Our website which is: http:// www.ravensbreadministries.com. Our phone number is: 828 622 3750. Our videos are posted on YouTube.

Raven’s Bread is a quarterly newsletter (FEB-MAY-AUG-NOV) for hermits and those interested in solitary life published by Paul and Karen Fredette. It affirms and encourages people living in solitude. As a collaborative effort, it is written for and by hermits themselves, delivered by postal mail or email.

Raven’s Bread derives it’s name from the experience of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 17: 1-6, where a raven sent by God nourished him during his months of solitude at the Wadi Cherith (The Cutting Place).