4. The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World

by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.

http://www.amazon.com/Introvert-Advantage-Thrive-Extrovert-World/dp/0761123695/sr=1-1/qid=1171387062/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7120125-3887356?ie=UTF8&s=books

After finishing (and thoroughly enjoying) The Loner's Manifesto, I decided to continue on my journey of self-discovery and read The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World. Reading these books together worked out beautifully. While The Loner's Manifesto discussed the social and historical aspects of being an introvert (though the author believes this is not the best term), The Introvert Advantage has a great helping of psychological and physiological information to round out the topic of introversion nicely.

For example, she discusses the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems and how they relate to introversion/extroversion. According to the author, the Sympathetic Nervous System is more active for extroverts and the Parasympathetic Nervous System is more active for introverts. This would explain (in my case anyway) why I'm sluggish a lot of the time. My system is simply operating at a more slowed down pace than that of extroverts. It also made me realize that although I sometimes I feel I have Early Onset Alzheimer's because I can't remember what I ate two minutes ago, introverts have excellent memory capacity and simply process memories differently. She says that although the memory is there, in your brain filed away somewhere, you can't just retrieve it at will. In some cases, it takes a trigger for that memory to be retrieved. Kind of like a Scavenger Hunt you need to follow clue one to clue two and so on. Eventually the final clue (or trigger) will take you back to the memory you're trying to locate. She mentions something else in the book that resonated with me because of personal experience: when introverts find themselves with free time, sometimes they can't think of what they enjoy doing. Seems impossible, right? Well, I guess for introverts it's not all that uncommon an experience.

Oh, and this one is the best. This one I enjoyed so much that I brought it to the attention of my parents (who I would say are also introverts). The author points out that because introverts brains are "always on," processing information and tend to have conversations in their minds, it is common for an introvert to swear up and down that they said something (or was said by someone else) that was never actually said. It just happened to be so vivid because the introvert was thinking it over so intently in his/her head. I think this has happened to me on more than one occasion and I'm sure after listening to conversations held between my parents that it's happened to them as well. ;)

This book was easy to read, in small-ish sections that you can read in one sitting if you don't have or feel like taking the time to read large chunks at one time.