This book arrived yesterday. It came highly recommended to Sean by Jan, his step mom. Even though he is a comedic performer, improvising and teaching  Improv in a front of a room full of people, Sean definitely considers himself more of an introvert.

Even though I’ve barely cracked open the cover, I’m already intrigued and I’m already going to recommend this book to you. 

The cover and the title alone totally caught my eye. I especially like the subtitle "the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking".  {sometimes I just want to tell people to please stop talking, especially our neighbor who insists upon talking on his cell on speaker phone right outside our window}

And then we watched the TED video by Susan this morning and now I am completely fascinated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4

I insta/tweeted a picture of the cover this morning and already the people responding with comments saying that they are reading this right now, tells me that we creatives were in need of some validation and permission to be the introverts that I personally think is necessary to do any kind of creative work.

It got me thinking about how introverted I am, really? I was definitely way more introverted as a child. Also being an only means that having a lot of  quiet and alone time is just part of the package.  Somewhere along the way I decided to develop my extrovert muscle and found that I also get energy from socializing. Listening to Susan’s talk makes me wonder if I develped that muscle because society applauds that quality more?

I don’t do crowds. One reason, I find attending and participating in art fairs particularly challenging. When I go to yoga class, or most classes actually I do not want to socialize. I just want to be quiet and learn. Teaching at larger art retreats and attending conferences, as fun and rewarding as it is can wollop me. I’ve always been more comfortable in smaller groups or one on one. Probably one of the reasons I’ve always enjoyed podcasting. A quiet way for me to get a message to many. 

I’ve discovered that an ideal week for me is an almost equal balance of inward and outward time. Actually I’d say leaning much more with an emphasis on inward time. It’s true what Susan says about needing quiet time and unplugging to come up with ideas. How will we ever get our own ideas if we are constantly experiencing a barrage of other people’s voices? We won’t. And there will just be more of the same. Something that many of us artists think about, how to keep our unique voice evolving and not looking like someone else’s vision, or conforming to creating work that is solely inspired by trend.

We have to learn how to tune out and tune in.

This becomes challenging in the world we live in where the noise has become more, not necessarily in decibles or in person socializing, but the social activity around social media. And the panic that ensues when we are not on it, feeling like we are going to be forgotten or left behind. Seriously, this is a myth that needs to be stopped before it gets started. If you do great, meaningful work you will not be forgotten, especially not by the the people who are truly your people.

I know much of my feelings about the quiet time I need are heavily influenced by the city I live in. The sound of the squeaking breaks on the garbage truck that is outside my window RIGHT NOW is SO loud. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that someone comes so consistently to pick up the trash, but the amount of leaf blowing I hear on any given week has GOT to stop. We live in Los Angeles - I mean really how many leaves are there? 

What I want to say is that living in a big city already calls for much more inward time to balance the energy involved just in getting from point a to point b. And if you happen to be more introverted,  you can only imagine how much more quiet time you might need.

After watching this video I know that both Sean and I, are breathing a big sigh of relief. We feel like we’ve been given permission to indulge in what comes natural to us. We feel like we want to honor our quiet time more, even when we are together in the same space, Thank you Susan for writing your book and for adding equal value to those who live and create from a softer, quieter space.

How about you? Where do you think you are on the introvert/extrovert scale?