I’m not sure if an aversion to excessive noise is a hallmark of the introverted personality, but I do know that few things set me on edge more than exposure to constant, chaotic noise (making the ear-splitting renovation hubbub going on below our apartment for the past few weeks such a joy). It could be [...]

One of my favorite Web sites is Arts & Letters Daily, a round-up of interesting articles from across the Web. This week the site brought two articles to my attention that I found noteworthy for a variety of reasons, and the more I thought about them, the more they seemed to fit together in some [...]

A few months ago, during a t’ai chi class, my teacher singled me out to show the class how not to perform a certain movement. While he may have been right about my mistake, I felt an immediate physical reaction to this attention. My face flushed, my heart began to pound, and I stifled the [...]

I’m shocked to see that it has been an entire month since I’ve posted anything to Spectatrix. I know that a month in blog time is about a year in real time, but I’ve had a good excuse! Preparing for and then executing a move to a different country tends to eat up a lot [...]

Ever since I put together the FAQ for this site, I’ve pondered one of the answers I gave, and wondered if it was truly accurate. The question is “What is an introvert? What is an extrovert?,” and the answer I gave was (in part): Most basically, these terms refer to where a person gets their energy [...]

One thing I’m really enjoying about this blog is the great feedback I get from readers on a variety of topics. Not only does it boost my spirits, but I often learn very interesting things. For example, a recent comment on the Converting the Introverted post gave me a lot of food for thought. The [...]

In her book, Party of One: The Loner’s Manifesto, author Anneli Rufus attempts to reclaim the word “loner” from the negative associations it often carries. Frequently used by the media to describe serial killers and sociopaths who are said to have “kept to themselves,” the term “loner,” Rufus asserts, more aptly corresponds to the much [...]

Ever since I was little, I’ve enjoyed solitary walks, whether down a city street or a country road. I find this time therapeutic, and use it to follow lengthy trains of thought that are usually cut short when I’m in the midst of my daily activities. Although the activities I undertake may vary—composing a poem, [...]

A few years ago I agreed to serve as the chair of a committee despite my usual reservations about assuming leadership roles. For me, being a leader has always been a double-edged sword; I enjoy the challenge, but it takes a lot of energy for me to be available and engaged in a group process. [...]

I recently wrote an article for Interesting Thing of the Day about Proxemics, the study of how people manage the space around them. This has obvious resonance for introverts, who often find interactions with people at a polite distance to be draining, let alone if those people are in even closer range.

In the article I [...]

A few weekends ago I found myself in the position of having invitations to two events in as many days, a somewhat unusual occurrence in my social life. I had been looking forward to these two outings all week, knowing that I might have a chance to catch up with some close friends on both [...]