Introvert Power - Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength

Take your mind with you. Practice the simple exercise of noting what you think and feel: “Hmm, I like this.” “There is something wrong here.” “Okay, this sucks.” Turn up the volume on your inner wisdom

Withdraw more openly. State your introvert needs in the affirmative rather than apologetically

Practice “confident pausing.” When I studied speech, I learned to respect the pause. A deliberate pause holds the audience captive. Introverts think before speaking, and need time within conversations to develop their ideas and responses. In my family, I got used to others chiming in, so I learned to trail off and make room for interruptions—this was not confident pausing. A confident pause is a clear break, and communicates the expectation that others wait. Try it. Start with low-stress situations. Stretch out time. Use public space for thinking privately. Act as if you’ve got all day. Feel the power

Absorb the power of collective introversion. Attend a meditation circle or prayer vigil. Look for people behind the scenes. Read, and make company with books. As

The next time you go to a mall or one of those obligatory parties, see if you can find the pattern, the rhythm, and make it a meditation. Allow yourself to look beyond the small talk to our shared condition and longings. Let your presence offer the peace you so value

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.

The research shows that successful change starts inside, where the first three stages take place: pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation. So if you want to get “out there,” you do better when you build up your desire internally first. It’s easier and it works better. So, don’t just do something, stand there awhile first!

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing,” and “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”

Write daily. Even a small chunk of time, fifteen or twenty minutes each day, gets your mind oriented to what you’re putting on the paper. Just as small, frequent meals aid metabolism of food, small, frequent writing sessions aid metabolism of

metaphors, your first writing is as delicate as a seedling. Don’t show it to some yahoo who wouldn’t know an orchid from kudzu