The art of doing all or nothing..

So yesterday was a complete write-off.

An insane amount of cider on my work night out the evening before made sure of that.

Those days, filled with the immense pleasure of doing NOTHING, actually tend to happen a lot more often than I would like to admit. It is not because I get plastered and spend a lot of time hung over or anything, but because I need it. Crave it. 

I always used to despise this particular feature in myself. My need to veg in the sofa with a book, separated from the world, made me feel useless! I should be doing my research, hang out with friends and be social! Not waste my life away dressed in pyjamas!

I am a very social being. Love hanging out with people and engage in interesting discussions as well as useless banter. I have always been like this, and have considered myself a very social and extrovert person. How could I have a need to be alone??! 

But this was before I started talking to my dude about it. My dude happen to be one of the most well read people I know, and is a bit of a hobby expert in psychology and philosophy (as well as the topics of the Hibernian football club and random electronic music, but that's a different story all together)

It turns out that the definition of an introvert personality type is not at all someone who can't stand other people, like i always assumed, but rather someone who looses energy when socialising. Energy that needs to be replenished through alone time. Whilst extroverts and introverts both love socialising, only the former will actually gain energy by interacting with other people. 

So there it was. The realisation that I am an introvert!

Just having this knowledge has actually changed me! I now feel a lot more comfortable with the fact that I need to be alone. An inner calmness that comes through acceptance. An acceptance of who i am, and a realisation that it is all ok. I don't worry at all about this part of myself any longer, and it has also given me a lot more enjoyment in those moments on my own.

Whilst there are a lot of discussions that could be had regarding the validity of sorting yourself into a folder with respect to any personality type, the truth still is that introverts and extroverts exists. The line between the two is most likely not very sharp, and the degrees to witch you belong to either category probably varies greatly. 

But my opinion is that, as long as we are not starting to sort other people into folders, some knowledge of standard personality types can give a lot of insight that might be beneficial to our own well being.

What do you think? Do you consider yourself an introvert or extrovert? 

Alone on a train racing through the rainy Scottish country side = pure bliss for any garden variety introvert. 

//  Tee  --  Has got fully charged batteries and is ready for meeting up with a lovely friend in Cambridge tonight!