Extroversion and Introversion
_I: Today there was a lot of noise inside the pyramid, a lot of people, but I could hear the heartbeat... Pum pum, pum pum, aligning with the heart. And I felt myself pulsating, expanding toward the world and contracting, drawing the world toward me.
_AM: You felt the heart of the soul, well.
_I: How would you define the heart of the soul?
_AM: Well, the physical heart contracts and dilates by electrical pulses from the nervous system that contract and dilate blood vessels and muscle cells. Like a water pump, this drives blood to circulate through the entire system of veins and arteries. These pulses are energetic, a positive and a negative current that function as conduits of electricity. That energy is the soul, therefore, the heartbeat of the soul is all these pulses: the positive expanding outward, and the negative contracting inward.
_I: The positive expresses itself, then, by taking everything that was inside towards the external, towards the world, while the negative moves that external information by bending it and contracting it inward.
_AM: This constant pulse of soul energy expanding and contracting, transforming the internal world outward and the external world inward can be known as the Heartbeat process of Being, the mechanisms of which are “extroversion” and “introversion.”
_I: Ok, that's where extroverted and introverted personalities come from. Being the first people with a communicative, friendly, fun character, with the will to share what they are with the world, and on the other hand, those who lock themselves in their internal world, with the will to enjoy their rich imagination, of its loneliness and silence.
_AM: Extroversion and Introversion come from the Latin: “ex-” (outward) and on the other hand “in-” (inward), added to the particle “tra” (between), and the concept “versus” (turn , return, turn around).
_I: Like “Universe”.
_AM: Which means “everything revolves around a single point.”
_I: So extrovert would be one who turns or turns the internal towards the external, and introvert would be the one who turns from the external towards the internal. Like inverting, which would be turning towards an opposite. Many times the introvert is taken as negative.
_AM: Indeed it is. As I said before, the negative aspect of energy is turning inward, while the positive aspect is turning outward.
_I: Yeah, but I mean it looks like the bad thing. There is a very great need to want introverts to go outside, as if that were the right thing to do, as if expressing, making friends, socializing, all of this were the norm, and the rest was wrong. Many think that being introverted is due to some type of fear or trauma, and that going outward shows that the person is open, happy and capable of development. Introverts tend to be colder and less tactful with others, while extroverts have better communication and understanding skills. Maybe all of this makes him look bad.
_AM: A society is made up of different groups. The groups are made up of families and friends. The family is a genetic group of biological belonging. Friends are a contextual group of resonant belonging. The individuals who make up the groups each have specific skills and needs. Their skills are useful to the needs of others, and their own needs are met by the skills of others. This base of negatives and positives, of having and lacking, constitute the basic reasons for social symbiosis. Just as there is symbiosis among single-celled organisms, or in nature symbioses occur between different animals or plants, among humans this symbiosis is the basis of all society. A symbiosis is the ability to exchange qualities with other living organisms. For example, insects feed on nectar and pollen from flowers while flowers take advantage of insects for pollination.
_I: Societies are then like a huge forest where many creatures exchange physical and energetic favors.
_AM: Exactly. The basis of a society is the constant symbiotic interaction between its individuals. The more the individual expands, the more ability there will be to survive, since it means that he will have more tools to meet his needs and will generate more skills through experience to help others. This symbiosis becomes part of the culture, and is, in fact, the reason why cultures exist. The greater the number of cultures, the more possibilities of awakening potentials, the more skills, the more exchange. What role, then, does an introvert have in this mechanism?
Me neither…? That is to say, of course, in social symbiosis, constant interaction is needed, the opposite of introspection.
_AM: That is why society interprets introspectiveness as a problem. What does not interconnect is seen as a gap in the system. Someone who does not exchange is interpreted as a failure in the system.
Me but…
_AM: …But many of the great changes of Humanity were made by introverts.
_I: What would that be like?
_AM: Artists, musicians, bohemians, philosophers, scientists, thinkers, spiritualists, writers... Most of them share one quality: introspection. “Specere” means “to look or observe”, that is, the action of looking within, of self-contemplation. Turn the outside world inward. The introversion of these individuals leads to much deeper analyzes that contemplate much larger processes than those of extroverts. Extroverts solve momentary, instantaneous conflicts and needs, those of the present, because by constantly moving from one individual to another, they do not have time to consider big things, but rather to resolve what they see and touch in the world, which is constantly changing. The introspective person observes, contemplates the origin of things, analyzes the movements of extroverts, sees the mechanisms, knows how to look at the world, and that is why he understands his past and his future. He sees beyond, due to the ability to look inside. Do you know what they say...? “The answer was in front of me all along.” Sometimes the answer to the big things in the world is found in the little things inside. Therefore, those who silently analyze and take the time to be with themselves are the ones who can see much further.
_I: But there are many introverts who have a hard time…
_AM: Because society has told them that what they do is wrong. They try to fit in, and they feel judged. Thus they lose their ability to focus inside, wasting energy looking at what is happening outside. When you meditate, you close your eyes... Why?
_I: Because then I can focus on myself.
_AM: When you imagine you close your eyes. Because?
_I: To see the world inside me.
_AM: Because everything you see in the world is a perception of what is inside you. You see the world with the eyes of your soul. Therefore, when you close your eyes you stop seeing the perception and contemplate the perceiver. The introspection of introverts would be the autumn and winter seasons, while extroversion is the spring and summer.
_I: What about those that do not have a change of seasons like at the equator or the poles?
_AM: Everyone has changes of season. They are called the dry season and the wet season. In the humid season, as well as in winter and autumn, individuals withdraw for a time towards the interior, especially in areas above or below the tropics. North America, Europe, Northern half of Asia, Southern South America, Southern Africa and Oceania. Changes are experienced very well there. Now, do an analysis. What are the most organized countries in the world?
_I: Emmm, I would say the Scandinavian countries, Canada… Australia, New Zealand…
_AM: Cold countries. And the most chaotic countries?
_I: They are usually in central Africa, South Asia, Central America...
_AM: Warm countries…
_I: Does the climate have anything to do with our way of being socially?
_AM: Everything is connected. Cold countries with long winters tend to have more time to plan. Between 3 to 6 months, these countries cannot do much, their nights are long, and they must remain locked down. Before audiovisual entertainment, these countries spent entire days listening to stories, reading books, writing, meditating. While in the hot areas of the planet, everything expands more. Music, rhythms, conversation, living on the streets, enjoying, sharing with neighbors, is much easier. This makes warm countries more extroverted and friendly, collaborative in community. While the cold ones are planners, solitary, marking distance. This means that cold countries have become conquerors of the world, colonizers, due to patience and strategy, while warm countries allowed themselves to be defeated more easily. However, hot countries are seen as more kind and friendly, but also disorganized. Cold countries have managed to advance much further due to their ability to plan, whether for better or worse. And the warm ones have known how to spread their art and warmth to the world, also for better or worse.
_I: They both have something to give.
_AM: In a balanced and fair society, the cold ones have a lot to give to the warm ones and vice versa. Extroverts have a function: expand, share, connect, while introverts have a function: plan, understand, build. Introverts need more time to generate something, but what they generate will be definitive, while warm ones will solve short-term problems. This is teamwork, they are not opposites.
_I: Society fights in these two opposites. Extroverted individuals laugh or judge or want to chase introverts out of their cave, while introverts shy away from the expansive and talkative space invaders. Like when everyone wants an autistic or Asperger's person to become “normal”, when they have a beautiful quality of finding the richness of the inner world. Instead of wanting to get them out of there, you have to allow them to express their rich inner world, and share it with them. The same thing happens at a social level, in which the warm people call themselves the colonized and the cold people call themselves the colonizers. They blame each other. And a lot of energy is wasted in trying to see who is right, when in reality, the history of colonialism has already passed, it is time for globalization, now we all have something to contribute, positive and negative, organized and chaotic, cold and warm, extroverted and introvert…
_AM: Both polarities are the mechanism of the pulse, the beat of the creation of energy and the construction of realities. Every individual must be able to live both polarities in their life and respect these moments and spaces. Only in this way will we understand that the vibration that connects and creates all things arises from the concave and convex movements of the waves. Positives and Negatives.
_I: I must, therefore, respect my times of introspection as moments of assimilation and planning of the past and future, as well as take advantage of moments of extrospection to connect to the world in the present, here and now.
_AM: Two currents, cold and warm, are those that move the waves of the vast ocean of souls. But both are the sea. Become the sea, flow in the heartbeat of creation. That is the greatest legacy of the Universe.