When I participated in the Meyer’s Briggs personality test many years ago, it indicated that I was an “extroverted-introvert.” That means I’m socially adept, as well as quiet and reclusive. When I attend a gathering or a party, I am able and willing to easily engage, talk, laugh, sing and dance like the rest of the extroverts.
But, like most introverts, I don’t especially favor small talk. I’d rather seek out a quiet nook of the room and sit down with the one person that I feel I can have a deep and meaningful conversation with. Even that kind of engagement can sometimes demand more of my energy than what I’m comfortable putting out. It’s not unnatural for me to want to leave a social event early, so I can recharge my batteries and enter back into a place I’m more comfortable being in — a place of solitude.
In a place of solitude, I can do what I do best. I can create. I can use my time and energy to think, dream, imagine and write. For as long as I can remember, I have loved to write. Whether it was Christmas letters, poems, tributes, business brochures, articles or what have you, I was always in my comfort zone when putting pen to paper.
The first books I ever wrote and published included three whole foods cookbooks, each of which featured eco-friendly recipes, as well as inspiration for living in harmony and balance with nature. After becoming a cookbook author, my publisher suggested that I seek opportunities to share my wisdom about food, nutrition, health and ecological disease prevention as a freelance health writer. I did, and that offered me (the “introvert part” of me) a way to connect with a national audience, even though I was working behind the scenes to do it.
Since the publication of my first books and articles, I’ve worked on many other writing and publishing projects. One of my biggest creative writing projects (an Eco-Mentor Leadership Training curriculum for young adults), which involved the creation of eight companion books, led me to completely abandon the “extrovert part” of me for many years. It wasn’t intentional on my part, but as I discovered, I needed to dive deep into the heart’s core of my being to get in touch with the inspiration that wanted (and needed) to be birthed within me.
That birthing process was both exhilarating and exhausting. It required me to live in a world without many distractions and become attuned to my innermost thoughts. It required me to draw on my own self-healing experiences to create the messages featured on the pages of my books, and honor the guidance given to me (for shaping those messages) by the voice of Mother Earth herself.
Even though I was a “shut-in” during my process of “writer’s immersion,” I never felt alone. In addition to being connected to (and guided by) the voice of nature, I was also connected in spirit to a community of angels living “on the other side.” Like Mother Earth, these angels were my constant companions for many years. They loved me, calmed my fears and doubts, smiled on my efforts, downloaded amazing ideas into my thinking brain, and gave me meticulous instructions for how to put my books and curriculum together as a whole.
As a result of their guidance, I wrote a memoir, an Eco-Mentor Guidebook, and six workbook journals, all of which symbolize the wisdom that I’ve gained on my own life-long journey to understand, manage and heal the symptoms of environmental illness.
Now, with this timely opportunity to share my “introvert-extrovert” experience with The Edge community, I hope others will join me in “healing themselves, to heal Mother Earth!” Both introverts and extroverts are needed to heal ourselves and the planet!