I came across a reel on Instagram this morning about introverts. Now, I didn’t fact check this other than weighing it against my personal experience, but the person was saying how in studies introverts were energetically drained by small talk and interacting with people in that way. Yep, yep. I have found that to be true. However, it was also shown that if introverts were engaged in conversations with people that they could talk to about their passions or explore ideas that introverts were actually even more supercharged than extroverts!
As an introvert, I found that interesting because I have often found it difficult to reconcile those types of silly and giddy conversations that I hate to end with my general avoidance of people.
That rolls right into the prompt for today and its dive into exploring how we communicate with others.
When I think about this, I find that how I have shown up in the past (like over 20 years ago) pops in my mind as my default. That Sheila would sit quietly in a group and watch everyone. She didn’t want to be called on to do “get to know me” exercises or interact more than she had to.
There is also a Sheila, though, that likes to be silly and make people smile or catch them off guard. She loves talking about lots of different things. I have found the more open I am to showing up as that Sheila, the more opportunity there seems to be for those kind of interactions to unfold.
We really are always changing…