Nothing in my head

So upon a recommendation of a friend, I’ve just finished reading the wonderfully insightful book, The Introvert Advantage. I’ve really enjoyed it. My favorite title was the one on parenting: “Are they up from their naps already?” Made me laugh out loud at how true that sounds! What was lovely about this book was how freeing it was to be a wallflower when you need to if you’re an introvert, but also that we do need to ‘let our lights shine’ so that we develop community. The author had some fabulous ideas about how to extrovert at parties and still conserve your energy and how to evaluate your schedule to make sure you’re not over-committing so you still get time to yourself to recharge.

One thing has really rang true with me though was that if introverts don’t have time and space to process information, they literally think there is nothing in their heads. Oh, you mean, the fact that I have 2 littles at home means that I have to set aside time to process and think and just be? And not fill it up with Facebook and Twitter and blogs? Because I have felt like I used to be smart, used to know how to think critically and now that I’m in need of finishing my PhD thesis ASAP, I have nothing in my head. What both this book is helpful in articulating (and my PhD supervisor mentioned as well) is that your brain needs time to process and percolate. BUT you have to let it percolate or the thoughts and ideas and inspiration just doesn’t come. Introverts apparently have a longer brain pathway (thus, it’s not great to interrupt us — takes longer to retain their spot and uses more brain energy), so it takes us longer to process info and think and dwell on it. But lots of great ideas can come from this!

So in honor of my introversion, I’m committing to letting my brain think through things without the clamor of media or just vegging out (which I’m prone to do at the end of the day). I’m going to teach myself again how to just *be*, to dwell.