Other Ways to Microhermit

We know there's a difference between rotting and composting when we microhermit. But I feel like I have just scratched the surface, so let's get into the many other ways to microhermit (I'm just going to focus on the regenerative and positive ways)

Seasonal microhermitting

Some cultures built withdrawal into the year itself. Among the Noongar people of southwestern Australia, six seasons guided activity and rest. In cooler months, life slowed and people moved inland. In parts of West Africa, the dry season similarly brought quieter rhythms and became a time for storytelling, ceremony and preparation.

Your body might already know this rhythm. Winter makes you want to curl inward. Summer pulls you out. Darling, that's not laziness, it's seasonal microhermitting.

Grief microhermitting

In Australia, "Sorry Business" is still observed in many Aboriginal communities as a period of collective mourning, ritual, and retreat. Among the Ngulu of Tanzania, families step away from work and public life after a death, cared for by extended kin.

They were structured disappearances and active grief rituals allowing people to soften, cry, be still, and be together.

We've lost this. Now we're expected back at work three days after a funeral. But the need to withdraw after loss hasn't gone anywhere.

Postpartum microhermitting

In Igbo culture, the Omugwo tradition brings a mother or mother-in-law into the home to care for the birthing parent for weeks after childbirth. Yoruba communities similarly ensure the new mother is fed, massaged, bathed, and surrounded but not left alone.

Microhermitting was expected, and the community was there to make it possible.

You weren't left in isolation instead an intentional withdrawal held by others occured. The new mother stepped back from the world, and the world held space for her to do it.

Creative microhermitting

Artists disappear to make. Writers hole up for months. Musicians lock themselves in studios. We totally understand this and give them that time to focus.

Creative microhermitting is stepping away to bring something back to fill the world with joy, thought and something new to experience. 

Spiritual microhermitting

The fast before a holy day. The sabbath pause. The wilderness years. Ramadan. Lent. Vision quests.

Across cultures and faiths, spiritual practice has always included intentional withdrawal. Time to sit with yourself, with God, with the questions you can't answer while moving at full speed.

The pattern is still in your body.

You don't have to call it microhermitting. You don't have to know which tradition it comes from.

You just have to recognise when you need to step away, and do it with intention.

Seasonal slowdown. Grief spacing. Postpartum rest. Creative isolation. Spiritual pause.

It's all microhermitting. And it's all been here before.

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Next in the series: How to actually do it - the practical art of microhermitting.

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