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Books to Live By


I was thinking today about books I have read this year that have had an impact on how I live my life.  The first that comes to mind is The Introvert's Way by Sophia Dembling.  It is an amazing book and I have treasured reading it this year.

As an introvert I have always known that I need time alone and quiet to refresh and rejuvenate myself.  I need to process and reflect.  I have believed that the only thing that was keeping me down was others and that is not so. 

I also listened to the world tell me that introversion and shyness are the same thing when they are not.  Our society looks on extroversion as "normal" and introversion as less than.  After reading Sophia Dembling's book, I fee free and validated that introversion is a different kind of normal, not better or worse, just different. 

I hear people every day criticizing themselves for being shy and for not being as socially comfortable or versed as they believe they "should" be.  What I am hearing is myself a few years ago.  I am not shy – I am not afraid of people.  I am an introvert.  I need time alone, all alone in a wide open space to renew my energy. 

I have been able to adjust my expectations of myself and others, be more open about my needs, and allow myself the quiet I need.  I have been able to handle situations in this past year that required me to step so far outside my comfort zone I was practically in an alternate universe.  And I was able to do that because I could conserve my energy resources for what really mattered to me.

I am looking forward to making more use of the tools that The Introvert's Way taught me.  I am an introvert and I am mighty because I am finally armed with the skills I need to live my life to the fullest. I accept myself and celebrate the creativity, reflection, richness, and joy of being an introvert.


WISPS OF WISDOM

Wisps of ideas
Floating past my mind,
I reach to grab them,
To incorporate them into my life.
They dissolve between my fingers,

What, what exactly was that you said?
I know it would help.
I just about have it.
It sounded so right.
But, now it is gone,
Wisps of wisdom evading my grasp.





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Comments

  1. Dennis TardanDecember 30, 2013 at 12:48 PM

    I am an extrovert although I see myself as about 75% extrovert along the continuim from absolute introversion to absolute extroversion. I still need my alone time to recharge but mostly I get a huge boost from connecting with people. I learn so much from honoring both within me.

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    Replies
    1. Dennis TardanDecember 30, 2013 at 12:50 PM

      About your poem... I feel that way about my dreams and have to just allow them to fade and focus upon the feeling that they elicited to aborb what they need to tell me and what I can learn about myself.

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