How to be a Recluse

Why seclusion right now might be the very best thing for you.

Let me start with a confession: I enjoy being a recluse. It’s probably because for most of my life, every experience I’ve ever had, has evoked a feeling of utter dread. It’s not just social situations — in fact like a chameleon I can blend quite easily, but not enjoy it— it’s all situations. This apparent lack of adaptability is at the heart of my personality. For years I fought against it. I’d peruse the world of more ordinary folk, and feel a degree of envy and confusion, “what’s wrong with me?” I’d ask. As I’ve got older I’ve realised there’s nothing wrong with enjoying solitude, , it’s actually beneficial.

In fact, to be a recluse you don’t have to be one of the crusty old desert father’s feeding on locusts and honey. As eminent psychiatrist Dr Anthony Storr once wrote ‘some of the most profound and psychologically healing experiences which individuals encounter, take place internally.’ That is to say far from the madding crowd, where creativity manifests, imagination runs riot, and in the stillness of the moment, tranquility sets in.