It’s taken me a lot of years to honour my introverted self. I used to get teased a lot for being shy, and in my teenaged years was stunned to find out that a lot of people thought I was stuck up and kind of a b!tch, when the reality was that I was neither. I was just a quiet, introverted person. I still get harassed by the extroverted people in my life for not being more outgoing, louder, more extroverted. But, it’s not who I am. Much as I can’t get those extroverts to be more quiet, to crave their alone time, to be more introverted, it’s not right that I be expected to be more like them. Of course being extroverts, they tell me loudly how I should be behaving, and being an introvert I usually just think my replies about how I wish they would zip it shut while retreating into my quiet. Neither way is better or worse, they’re just different ways of being.

Like most introverts I have a lot going on in my head and as a result I need a lot of quiet time to process all those thoughts. Don’t worry, it’s not crazy people voices chatting away in there. There’s just a lot of thoughts, a lot going on, a lot I like to process. Without the quiet times I can’t do that.

I was raised by introverts and I’m raising introverts of my own. Even my child who craves social contact (Jenna) has her moments where she runs into her room and says “Quiet time! Don’t come get me unless it’s an emergency!” Or often after a long day of playing with friends “That was fun, but I haven’t really had any me time yet today if you know what I mean.”

This didn’t really lead to a life of introverted loneliness before we started moving either as I was blessed to have been born into a very large extended family full of introverts. We could be at a large family function but everyone would be in their own comfort zone supported by other familiar introverts (and the odd loud extrovert).

Even if I wanted to (which I don’t) I will never be a really extroverted, outgoing person. That’s ok. There’s lots of wonderful extroverted, outgoing people out there, just as there are lots of wonderful introverted people. It’s all about honouring who we really are and letting that light shine.

Today’s moment of happiness (day 29 of my 44 days) came in a quiet afternoon. We were on yet another snow day but the roads were decent in the afternoon so I took the kids out to play with friends. I came home and spent a few hours on my Ayurvedic course work. It was quiet, but it makes me happy to be able to do this learning. It’s changed everything about how I live my life.