Do you have a 'rich inner life'?

[Twattergy]

And if so, what's in there?!
I think I do, in so much that despite a fairly busy life I spend quite a lot of time in my own head, and I like it.
For me, a rich inner life means I enjoy thinking about a range of 'non essential' things like music, nature, art. I'm interested in my own ideas and in how I process the world around me. I am company for myself, if that makes sense.
Unsurprisingly I'm therefore quite happy spending time alone. I am also very sociable. So it's not at the expense of connecting with others.

You're not mad, unless I am too! I spend a lot of time thinking about the universe and existence, while on the outside I look like I am just getting on with my day
I can have multiple interesting (to me) things occupying my thoughts

I’ve got much better at this - I’m not sure why or how. For example I used to hate swimming because it was half an hour of enforced time in my head with no distractions, whereas now I look forward to it. Really interesting reading what other people are thinking about and how it enriches their lives.

A therapist once used exactly those words to me. I nourish and persevere my inner life and live in fear of others intruding and damaging it in some way. I think it’s also one of the reasons I hate noise, housing estates, cars, overcrowding etc. I yearn for silence so that I can enjoy my inner life in peace. I also find needy, overbearing extroverts, who constantly want attention and praise, infuriating to the point of rage. I have actually come close to yelling at a nosy, intrusive neighbour. If he hadn’t moved, I’d have ended up telling him to “f*ck off” when he kept leaning over the back fence.

I love literature and art, and I love learning new things. I also have a passionate commitment to the literary canon. I try and work my way through the classics, from Jane Austen and Dickens to Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch. So many things interest me I can hardly keep up. With all my heart I wish there weren’t so many people and cars and houses. If I lived in the middle of a field, in total silence, I could be SO happy.

What a beautiful thread OP.
Such life-affirming contributions too.
This is definitely me. My inner life is also where my most precious equilibrium is to be found, and when life gets overwhelming my coping mechanism is to retreat into my safe space in my head, and stay there until I feel I've got my equilibrium back in balance.
I simply can't do that 'out' in the real world, it's too noisy and chaotic.

It's interesting that amongst those of us who do have this inner life, how precious it is to us. There seems to be a common appreciation of peace and quiet and calmness. I agree also that in times of stress, pressure or intense activity, there is less space for my inner life, so its 'voice' has fluctuated depending on life circumstances.

Very rich inner mind, studied an arts subject but also adore science etc

it’s at times been too rich and too busy. Definitely have hyperphantasia

Query adhd as sometimes there’s too much. (And it’s been HCPs who’ve queried it!) But a theory of creativity is called tbe clown and the editor- sometime I think it just goes overly clown and I need to call the editor.

simply learning that has really helped!

strangely I really like listening to the radio a lot (r4) and I think that’s to keep my thoughts on the straight and narrow if that makes sense.

But I also get to a point where I have to hide away from external input.

Very common with HSP personalities. Who are often v in tune with nature and the arts.

I was an only child until I was seven and grew up in a world of imaginative play which came from inside my own mind. I never wanted brothers or sisters and was disappointed when my sister came along. She was a distraction. I have always lived inside my own head and my primal world is internal, rather than external. To some extent it is a survival strategy. People who have a rich inner life are self sufficient. They don't require constant input and stimulation from other people and outside sources. They can entertain themselves for long periods with thoughts, scenarios or creative constructions. Such people are often very private and detached because their attention is focused inward. Its not that they dont care about others. More that they do not notice. This is why they can live alone, work alone, or spend long stretches in solitude without feeling lonely. Our strength is that we are independent, creative and are able to concentrate intensely without distraction. No prizes for guessing that I elected to be childfree and ended up as an academic.

This is me too.
I started using it as an escape when I was a kid in an abusive household and I just kept on doing it throughout my life.
I actually write down the things I make up and illustrate them. I’ve got three main stories and I usually switch from one to another, adding more detail or changing parts. They’ve all got characters that more real to me than most people in real life.
I have even made playlists that are like soundtracks to each one and sometimes I just work on those.
I used to read a lot but since I had dc, I have gone full on ADHD and can’t concentrate even on the books I love most.
When I was breastfeeding and stuck in one place for long periods, I started to lean very heavily into daydreaming/ fantasising again.
I think it serves an important function for me and though it is almost certainly what is classed as maladaptive, I no longer try to resist it.
It replaces a lot of the intrusive/ obsessive thoughts I get otherwise. When they start, I just switch to thinking about one of my stories. This is especially helpful when I wake during the night because it gets me back to sleep.
It gives me a feeling of security and probably a source of dopamine that doesn’t require anything except my own brain.
The downside is, it is sometimes very hard to resist not mentally fucking off whenever my brain is confronted with something it doesn’t want to deal with, even just boredom.
And honestly, I often opt to indulge myself in daydreaming instead of something that is supposed to pleasant or good for me, like watching a movie in the cinema or going for a walk etc. When I was younger I didn’t really understand why I did it and couldn’t seem to stop. I worried a lot thst it was making me miss out, on making friends and having life experiences. But now I’m middle aged and I just don’t care anymore. It’s just nicer inside my daydreams than real life so why not.

This is totally me. Never understood when people say they don’t like being alone and ‘need’ a partner. I’ve been married and it’s overrated. My own inner world is far more important.

Outwardly I’m friendly and sociable, but I don’t socialise that much, much preferring my own personal space and company.

Same here and after watching so many near death experiences I think it’s all even more fascinating and would rather read about and think about what reality is even if others think it’s odd.

i think it’s odd not to question it all tbh 😂

Yes I do, very much so. I definitely fall in to the maladaptive daydreaming category when I'm stressed!

No, I don’t think I do in the sense you mean, although as an only child I used to spend a lot of time making up stories growing up, and had things like an imaginary house on an island planned out in detail.
As an adult I am very happy with my own company but if I’m doing housework or something I usually listen to an audiobook or a podcast rather than wanting to spend time thinking.
When I do spend solid time thinking (and it’s not stressing about what I ought to do / should have done / getting through my to do list) then it will be planning something nice I want to do in the real world - what flowers I could plant by the pond I made on my allotment; which on my list of London walks I might do next; interesting meals I could cook that I will probably never get around to.
I like finding out about things, for example from the history podcasts I listen to, and I like books set in fantasy worlds, but I don’t go away and think deeply about them afterwards.

I write books so I channel my imaginary inner life into words for other people to also see my imaginings!

It's great but sometimes it can be so all encompassing that I find I am 'living' my characters' lives at the same time as living my own; almost as though I am leading two lives (one generally a lot more exciting than the real one...)

I wish I did. In fact my inner life is arguably a lot shitter than my real one 😂

Interesting to see your title and intro. I am 53 and all my life have had a very busy inner dialogue, inner discussions about anything and everything, people, politics, society, sports. I have never thought of it as an inner life but I like it and can very much relate to many of these posts.

Yes... and sometimes, it would be nice if my inner life switched itself off sometimes so that, you know, I could fall asleep without thinking about things for HOURS! I have wondered if it is because there is so much going on in my head that I do not want/need a lot of other people's company.

I have a job which means that I work on my own a lot, so as long as I'm doing my work, my head can wander off into its own little world every day. Sometimes it's books or something that I'm writing, what I want to do in the future, conversations, music (at the moment, it's an orchestral piece that is stuck in my head), etc. Luckily, I also live in a rural area, so it's less likely that I have hoards of people rudely interrupting whatever is going on in my head!

yes, but sometimes I do worry that I live in my own head so much that I forget to actually live in the real world

Yes definitely and I love spending time alone, in fact I need it to feel normal. Sometimes though I can’t switch it off and occasionally I think my inner life and internal monologue spills over into really life and some people think I’m odd. But generally I’m socially fine. I must be lucky in that, despite being an only child, I don’t think I’ve ever felt lonely in my life. I don’t know what it feels like because I’ve never really craved company other than my own.

I love time just letting my brain think freely, revisiting memories, having an inner 'dialogue'. We all need this. Xx

This is me and my friend to a tee. She can’t picture anything and says there’s just nothing there. I have a selection of all sorts in my head. I have a jukebox where I select what songs I want on, I play out scenarios in books, how I want to decorate and what furniture I would like, when people tell me a story it’s like I’m watching television on a cinema screen at the front of my forehead and that’s just for starters. The curse is that no film or show ever matches up to my imagination if I’ve read the book! Plus I occasionally zone out when I should really be paying attention, when I’m crossing a road (the amount of times I’ve almost got run over is ridiculous) or listening to important instructions. I’ve never dared drive as I’d be a liability. 🫤

I've only read about a quarter of the replies so my comments are based on those only.

my inner life is not based at all on an imaginary life My inner life, which I cherish, is more based on thoughts of what things actually mean.

As an an example, today I read a review of A biography of Anthony Blunt. So now I'm wondering why the head of MI5 and 6 would collude to underplay Blunts spying, what they were hoping to achieve? That'll keep me thinking for a good while.

I really identify with this post. I day dream or conceptualise constantly. Usually it is heavily image/interiors/decorating driven. I found having a small child very difficult as being in moment with them didn’t allow me to shoot off to the place in my mind where I create things: schemes, concepts, plans, or do any of the execution work that brings these to life. This I realised is so core to who I am, more children didn’t appeal to me whatsoever. Now my much adored DC is older and much more independent, I’m really enjoying all the time I get back for me.

Snap. You sound exactly like me.

I think (sadly) it's an artifact of feeling unsafe and chaotic in my childhood.

Same here. I imagine it's a recurrent theme among many on this thread. It's probably about learning to be self sufficient from a very young age and about becoming absorbed in our inner world as a means of escape from our reality.