That Happy Hermit We Sometimes Envy

A Treasure from the Divine

We find in the books of history, in every country, stories of hermits who went to live in the mountains. On all continents, there are tales of the wise ones who left their families and their villages, seeking peace and loneliness. I am sure they were introverts, seeking freedom from the pressure of society. Or maybe they were just tired of some dramas — I say this with a gentle smile.

In the past, those who needed to escape their lives for a shorter or longer moment in time could simply leave the village and find a quiet place in nature to rest. Later in history, those who could not leave the village would then use alcohol to escape the pressure of daily burdens. Today, people use other ways to escape their daily life: they use virtual reality worlds.

Did you ever wonder what it is, and why we need those moments of escaping? The thing is, many people are not aware of their own level of constant overwhelming until their body sends them to a doctor. Life has become increasingly demanding, and the permanent expectations from people and society have grown bigger, especially since everybody is available 24/7 with smartphones.

Dreaming about escaping all these demands is maybe simply our healthy survival instinct?

Maybe those hermits were introverts like me. I always loved to read about these hermits, and there are days when I envy them, living in the calm and the peace of nature in the mountains. No obligations, no pressure from the local community. They seem to be so free, simply living in harmony with nature, far away from the many noises of the cities.

 Yes, I grew up in the mountains and spent lots of time in nature. But now that small village is no longer a small village, and Instagram tourists have replaced the quiet, peaceful seasons we enjoyed in the past.

I not only envy the hermits living in hidden corners of the mountains somewhere in the Himalayas, I also remember the passion I felt when watching movies with heroes riding through wide open landscapes, meditating in the peace of nature, so serene… then preparing the fish you caught in the river or the lake over a nice fire… watching the stars at night…

As humans, we misunderstand the blessings that loneliness can offer. Yes, we can feel lonely while living in a big city. I lived and worked in big insurance companies in Zurich for several years, and I know that one can feel lonely even with big circles of connections in a city.
  
But then, there is another form of loneliness: the one that comes together with situations when you lose a job, face health issues, or after a separation. These are the moments when we suddenly start feeling lonely, because the circumstances around us have unexpectedly shifted to a quieter, less busy life.

To not feel that unexpected loneliness, many escape into streaming movies and similar activities. Those are distractions we use to avoid feeling the things we fear to feel, because many unconsciously associate loneliness with a sense of failure. The opposite is true: there is a hidden treasure in times of loneliness that your Soul wants you to understand…

I admit, those kinds of changes can feel scary for our human self. Those who walk the spiritual path know that these changes can also offer a unique chance: these longer periods of loneliness can be arranged for us through a higher, divine guidance — a time for healing, for restoration, and for learning.

And this is why we should not see loneliness as failure, but as an invitation from the higher Self to rest, to process, and to heal. Why? Because too often in life, we do not get enough free time anymore to process all the situations we have experienced. Ask yourself honestly: are you sure, really sure, that you did have a chance to process everything you went through in the last 25 years?

What some people call a burn-out, as one example of many symptoms, is often a clear sign that a person simply did not have enough time — and did not receive the necessary support — to truly process certain events that happened to them.

Those hermits went into nature for different reasons: they all wanted free time to think about their lives, time to process whatever happened in their lives. Yes, certainly, some of them probably wanted to get away from their dysfunctional families. Most of them were certainly not willing to fulfill the many expectations their local communities projected onto them.

But many of the hermits simply felt they wanted some alone time to think in the quiet peace of nature. And isn’t this what we all long for sometimes?

These hermits had two things that most of us in the modern world are now often longing for: stillness and free time. They were not afraid of loneliness, because they knew that alone time is needed to truly find inner calm and connect with the higher Self and the Divine Source. And they knew that inner peace and stillness are necessary to really hear the whispered answers from the Divine Realms.

When outer circumstances change and we find ourselves in times of loneliness, we can see it as a gentle gift the Divine Soul has lovingly arranged for us: a moment of divine protection, a sacred pause to rest deeply, to tenderly process what has happened, and to consciously heal the wounds of the heart.
Loneliness can also be a precious time given to us to explore spiritual teachings, to nourish the soul, and to feel the quiet embrace of the Divine within and around us.

If you find yourself feeling alone and your heart longs for a gentle presence, please feel free to reach out. I am here for you. We can meet soul to soul over a cozy cup of coffee in a quiet video call, simply sharing space and listening.

With a loving hug and heartfelt blessings,
Jeanne
 💗

www.jeannejess.com

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