One of the main reasons I sat down to write a newsletter today was to share the invitation for my upcoming community event in Seattle with my friend LB at SCBiz... and then I hit send without remembering to add the invitation.
Time for more coffee. 
So here's the event info: ↴
... LB just facilitates introvert-friendly (and neurodivergent-friendly) gatherings. And I love them so much.
If you have questions in advance, ping me -- it's been a long time since I've done an event here in Seattle, and we're trying to make it as welcoming and do-able as possible for those of us who rarely leave our homes anymore!
RSVP via my new favorite domain name:
https://madeforintroverts.com/
And I'll see you there!
J'ai fait un entretien. J'ai voulu paraitre naturelle alors j'ai laissé une part à l'improvisation. C'était un moment affreux. S'il y a une chose de ma nature qui a bien été exposée, c'est la #Timidité l'#AnxiétéSociale et l'#Introversion 
Elles ont toujours été là. Mais honnêtement je pensais que ça s'estomperait avec le temps, que je finirais par m'"affirmer". En fait, c'est de pire en pire.
Avant, j'avais l'excuse de la relative jeunesse, mais elle disparaît d'année en année. Adulte, je reste une petite chose ballottée par le vent devant le premier jury, qui se noie dans la confusion et le malaise en attendant la fin.
Je ne sais plus quoi faire.
Getting in touch with my inner marketer feels really, really hard given how strong my expert and coach muscles are right now.
I'm laughing out loud typing this, because externalizing it reminds me that in a past life I was a *literal marketing expert* -- with the awards sitting on the shelf behind me to back that up -- and *that* expert inside me knows that the place to start is storytelling.
Carrie shares:
How her own social anxiety led her to community building The surprising power of “quiet communities” Why true belonging doesn’t require being active Practical advice for joining or building communities that feel safe and supportive
If traditional social spaces feel draining or just not made for you — this episode might change the way you think about connection.
https://saralobkovich.com/thinkydoers-pod/social-anxiety-community-building
New Thinkydoers episode today:
For the quiet ones, the deep thinkers, and the socially anxious — this one’s for you.
This week, I’m joined by community strategist Carrie Melissa Jones for a conversation that flips the script on what it means to "belong."
We talk about creating spaces for connection that don’t require you to perform, show up constantly, or play pretend at extroversion.
My love language is not being perceived by, nor perceiving, other people.
"Kanashimi" - Introversion 
I like Reductress & read it weekly, enjoying its often witty combo of #feminism & #satire. Unfortunately i feel they missed the mark a bit here, mocking something that is very real for those of us "enjoying" the universe's "gift/s" of #introversion , #SocialAnxiety, #Depression.
Quote
Introvert Requires 48 Hours of Alone Time to Recover From 15-Minute Conversation
In a developing story out of a darkened bedroom, 28-year-old Alissa Donahue recently returned home after engaging in a brief 15-minute conversation with a coworker, and has now begun her required 48 hours of alone time.
“The conversation was actually really pleasant,” Alissa told reporters. “Unfortunately, it did drain me so much I needed to lie down immediately when I got home, and then not get up for two and a half hours.”
Alissa said that no matter how pleasant a conversation is, she always needs some time to herself to recover.
“Engaging verbally with another human in general just drops my energy levels to zero,” Alissa explained to reporters. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a brief conversation with a coworker or a high-pressure job interview. Either way, I’m going to need to binge watch 18 episodes of Avatar the Last Airbender afterwards just to get right with myself.”
Sources close to Alissa have described socializing with her as “talking to a rapidly melting snowman” and “experientially similar to overwatering a plant.”
“I love chatting with Alissa,” Alissa’s coworker, Jamie, told reporters. “It’s just hard because I feel like I’m killing her. With every second we spend discussing an episode of a show we both watched this weekend, I feel as if I’m stealing energy from her lifeforce and somehow imbuing it into myself.”
Alissa wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t that she found these types of conversations to be unenjoyable, it was just that she didn’t possess the mental and emotional endurance to sustain them for long periods of time.
“I just need to take frequent breaks,” Alissa said. “We can talk about the show we watched this weekend, but it would be best if we did so in one-minute increments over the course of five weeks.”
As of press time, Alissa had finally recovered from the conversation and decided to re-enter the world. However, she ran into her neighbor as she was leaving her apartment and was forced to return inside for another two hours to recover from that 11 second interaction.
Unquote
Burner phone
Hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries or millennia?
Oh that I should live so long as to be able to answer that question...
Me: I don't believe we've been properly introduced.
Them (reaching out to shake hands): Oh! Well, hello, I'm—
Me: No, no, no. I didn't say I *wanted* to be introduced.
#introversion
We talk about working on the weekend as though it's something terrible, but honestly I'd rather work 16 hours on a Saturday than spend half an afternoon at an 8-year-old's birthday party.
#WorkLifeBalance #introversion
Blog post: Rachel Cohen's "A Chance Meeting: American Encounters" is a wonderful book offering vignettes of meetings between individuals who helped to shape American culture. Mark Twain and Willa Cather, William James and Gertrude Stein, and others. The conversations are interesting in themselves; they also have me thinking about how encounters with people and books have shaped the person I've become.
https://johnrakestraw.com/post/chance-meetings-and-the-forming-of-an-identity/
Sometimes, all it takes to solve a problem is to have a simple conversation with the right person.
I refer to these as “intractable problems.”
#introversion
@neurovagrant I agree that one important aspect of my #NeuroDifference I always strongly connected to was needing private space and time to process/recover, especially from social situations. I previously thought this was about #introversion but I now consider it very differently.
Taking away my private space and time has serious detrimental effects on my #MentalHealth. I noticed this most acutely during #COVID #isolation.
Them: Should old acquaintance be forgot…
Me: Yes! Done. Ok, what's next?
#HappyNewYear #AuldLangSyne #introversion
Them: You're not in touch with ANY of your exes?
Me: Are you kidding? At this point, I'm not even in touch with any of my FRIENDS!
#introversion #BadAtKeepingUp #PandemicLife
Since the recent thread on the compatibility of community-focused #solarpunk and #introversion / reclusion / solitude-craving elicited quite a few reactions, I decided to design a blueprint for an introvert-friendly solarpunk community. 
I'm aware infrastructure isn't all there is to it, but I think it's a first step!
I don’t have social anxiety; I just need downtime to recharge after an outing. It’s a pretty simple ratio—for every one hour spent at a party, I need to have some quiet time for two to three
weeks.
#introvert #introversion
