Isolated Introversion is the worst. Two solutions

This is supposed to be a short post. A reminder to myself. This is for you, my introverted fellow friend.

Introvert’s trouble

Boiling and crystallizing ideas is what I do for a living. I don’t mean I get paid to to that. I mean I can’t escape it, and thinking is part of living. Naturally I’m prone to close myself off from outside world and have a richer one inside. I ain’t no special snowflake, I believe most introverts are like that.

The trouble however arises when social constructs of normality are pushed as the sole mode of proper living. This is otherwise called social conditioning. Some of these advertised lifestyles are cliches and are not even on the table of interest. However others would provide a more comfortable living or anything else desired.

For the latter, social skills have to be used. Great things are achieved in teams, societies, cooperation. I don’t feel comfortable saying this, but, there’s a limit what ONE man can do.

Antisocial spiral

I don’t know the tragedy behind extrovert’s inability to stay alone. I’m somewhat familiar with voluntary social isolation. Sometimes I work at home for several days in a row. Sometimes I don’t go out with friends for few weeks in a row. What I noticed, is that socializing becomes SOMETHING comparable to work, that I should even prepare somehow? Anything like “How are you?” “How was your week” seem like dishonest bullshit, while on the other hand you can’t “attack” a person straight ahead with deeper ideas.

I have some idea what this should look like from the side. Extroverts perhaps can’t even land these thoughts. But I can bet, that today, more people face these issues than ever before. Perhaps some are even paying their therapists.

Two ways for Introverts to feel better

#1 Solution – Get out

Keep your eyes open. More importantly – your mind aware. Whenever you slide into voluntary abyss of social isolation, force your self outwards. Invite an old mate. Go your for a movie, a walk. Just get out of your home.

Going out alone and experiencing city might be all you need to feel better. I have emphasized the importance of getting out of traditional space in my previous post.

#2 Solution – You are what you are

Don’t let unseen voice in your head say you don’t fit into society. You are unique, even though you are similar to thousands you never met. And this brings me to what I wanted to share with you today. Medicine for the introverts loosing their minds out there.

Dark Whisper – Realms of Unseen

This year I had a privilege to meet and become friends who are into psy culture. One of them – Peacock gave me a gift, which I recently rediscovered. At first the rhythms were too harsh for me, even though the used quote stroke a chord. However over the time I adjusted to music as well and today it’s part of my playlist.

As you might have noticed, there is a quote from someone.

Be the anomaly, the aberration, the glitch, the inconvenient, the divergent, the string of junk code, the stubborn apple that falls nowhere near the tree or the forest, be the fool, the bonehead, the idiot in the room, let them shake their groupthink heads at you, let them be ashamed of you, embarrassed of you, pissed off at you, go ahead. Be the scar tissue of their world view, their normality. They will loathe you, they will fear you… they’ll wish they were you…

Quote by Timothy Leary

Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer advocating the exploration of the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs under controlled conditions. And today I ran into his ideas:

Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others.

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Excuses if you found it hard to follow. It’s a late evening.