Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength (Reduce Anxiety and Boost Your Confidence and Self-Esteem with this Self-Help Book for Introverted Women and Men)

by Laurie A. Helgoe

What constitutes an introvert is quite simple. We are a vastly diverse group of people who prefer to look at life from the inside out. We gain energy and power through inner reflection, and get more excited by ideas than by external activities. When we converse, we listen well and expect others to do the same. We think first and talk later. Writing appeals to us because we can express ourselves without intrusion, and we often prefer communicating this way. Even our brains look different than those of extroverts.

As Gloria Steinem said, “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.

in perfect harmony. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” —Gandhi

“Time is short, but it is wide.” “How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward.” —Spanish sayings

when it’s too noisy to hear your thoughts, it’s time to retreat.

Introverts do not hate small talk because we dislike people. We hate small talk because we hate the barrier it creates between people.

You see, I’m different from you that way. That kind of event is not that fun for me. (Changing

“I said to myself, ‘I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me’…I decided to start anew—to strip away what I had been taught—to accept as true my own thinking.” —Georgia O’Keeffe

Deference is not such a bad quality: it communicates a respect for the importance of another person, her space and her privacy. Where deference is a social convention, you will find a more introverted society.

I see that you really want me to come. I like that part, and I’m sorry to disappoint you. But what I really want is some time to myself.

Good response

I appreciate that you took the time to include me, but I don’t want to add anything to my schedule right now.

What do you like best about being you? A: Resilience. I get depressed, disgusted, despairing, distraught, distended, disturbed, and deeply bummed. Two days later, I am playing guitar, mountain biking in the backwoods, meditating in the deep night, writing the story of my life, nuzzled with my daughter watching The Big Bang Theory, and all is fine and good. —Doug, who knows his way in the dark

“Hail divinest Melancholy, Whose Saintly visage is too bright To hit the Sense of human sight.” —John Milton, from Il Penseroso

The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life by Dinty W. Moore.

Book recommendation

as we get stronger and more confident, we give up the sham and return home to introversion; we don’t venture beyond to extroversion.

“Whatever you love, you are.” —Rumi

Know when you’re stuck. Boredom is a clue. Addiction is a clue. Low energy is a big clue. Real desire promotes flow and expands you. Fear, sometimes masked as desire, constricts. You may feel compelled to stay locked behind your computer even though you are miserable there and all life has been sucked out of the activity. This is not desire; this is avoidance, a response to fear.

Isn’t it refreshing to know that what comes perfectly natural for you is your greatest strength? Your power is in your nature. You may not think it’s a big deal that you can spend hours immersed in something that interests you—alone