Introversion Is A Healthy Choice and An Appreciated Lifestyle

     Susan Cain (2012), a lawyer, shares her experiences transferring into extroverted and thoughts about introversion. “In the 20th century”, she (2012) claims, the world started favoring the charismatic type of personality that the introverted personality has been underrated. Especially, educational institutes always pick teamwork as their top encouragement, even if the activity is individual dependence like creative writing. Obviously, teamwork is what we need in the modern lifestyle. However, according to Susan Cain (2012), too much teamwork has created a lack of balance of the introvert-extrovert spectrum. The first observation of the introverted traits was love soft-speaking and an amount of quiet time on their own. This private time doesn’t have any relation to being mellow, it is just one of the ways people choose to enjoy their life or their youth. Exemplifying for such common, misunderstanding situation, Susan Cain (2012)  recalls her summer camp experience from her childhood. Growing up favoring reading, Susan Cain had her suitcase packed and filled with books for the camp.  When Cain was caught reading books, the counselor expressed her worry about Cain’s introversion. She encouraged Cain to be outgoing with “R-O-W-D-I-E”. One of her campmates even came and wonder if Cain was being so mellow. Through the stories, Cain implies that the world needs to see the importance of the introversion. Specifically, Cain reveals, the introverted are great leaders and deep-thinking individuals, which is as worth appreciating as the extroverted.

     From this video, I have learned that influences on other people don’t only involve extroversion, the introversion also has its unique impact on others through its deep-thinking speciality. Although the introverts have their difficulties communicating with others such as making eye contact or the fear of wasting others’ time, they can make efficient communication thanks to the properly stimulations. What I mean is to create an environment when the introverts can gain confidence as much as the extroverts to express their ideas to the crowd. To this idea, Cain (2012) suggests creating a chatty, friendly meeting in the workplace as well as working privately. This point, I believe, relates to the principles “become genuinely interested in other people” (Carnegie, 1937, p. 74), and “remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language” (Carnegie, 1937, p. 88). Both of these principles can supercharge one’s confidence and the friendliness of a conversation. In doing so, the introverts will believe that they are important and their ideas are listened, which make them comfortable to express themselves in a later communication. Moreover, the emotion- sharing, which is “a form of communication that we talk about our emotional experiences with others” (McCornack, 2014, p. 76), might also be a solution. Interpreting my suggestion, Rosario Cabello and Pablo Fernandez-Berrocal claim in their research that “ the level of perceived social support interacted with emotional intelligence to produce higher positive affect” (2015), which indicates that emotion-sharing is a way to make the introverts feel happier working with others. However, too much emotional expressions, such as venting: “allowing emotions to dominate our thoughts and explosively expressing them (McCornack, 2014, p. 82)”, creates the opposite effect. In her article, Elizabeth Scott revealed that the introverts “are often more affected by the moods of others, which can lead to “contagious” stress reactions” (2018).

     If you are worried about someone's lack of outgoing trait, it's ok. However, you don't have to worry that he or she will close his or her heart. How about trying your best to get to know more about that individual and his or her choice of living? Communication efficiency is the key to a person's soul and opens our world. It links people together, either one's introvert, extrovert, or ambivert.

Eurus Thach.

References:

Cabello, R., & Fernandez-Berrocal, P. (2015). Under which conditions can introverts achieve happiness? Mediation and moderation effects of the quality of social relationships and emotion regulation ability on happiness. PeerJ, 3. Retrieved from NCBI https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4614904/. doi:10.7717/peerj.1300.

Cain, S. (2012, March 2). [TEDx Talks]. The power of introverts [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4.

Carnegie, D., 1937. (2005). How To Win Friends And Influence People. Cornerstone Publishing, Self-Improvement-eBooks.com.

McCornack, S. (2014). Interpersonal Communication and You: An Introduction. Boston, New York: Bedford. St. Martin’s.

Scott, E. (2018). Stress Management for Introverts. Stress Management, Management Techniques. Retrieved from Verywell Mind https://www.verywellmind.com/stress-management-tips-for-introverts-4065397.