Someone once likened extroversion/introversion and giving/receiving to breathing. The metaphor goes like this:
- You breathe out.
- You breathe in.
You don’t do both at once, but you do do both in pattern, back and forth, back and forth.
The same applies to giving/receiving and living externally/internally. Most of us have a preference one way or another: we like to give more than receive or socialize more than internalize. But both go together.
Like me, for example, I like to think I’m all about giving and socializing. Really, though, they both go together.
Like today. I’m in Cambodia. I could be out romping through ancient temples or chatting it up with friendly locals or random travelers here. There’s certainly plenty of each to go around. Instead, I spent most of the day inside, reading, catching up with some things online, sleeping, that kind of thing.
And it doesn’t feel like I wasted the day. It doesn’t feel like, Wow, I spent all this time and effort getting into a new and exciting country just to hang out in a hotel room? What’s up with that?
It doesn’t feel like that at all. It feels relaxing, actually. It feels like I want to pause, reflect, and breathe in.
