How Does Meditation Help Introverts Succeed?

How Does Meditation Help Introverts Succeed?

The other week I participated in a meditation workshop at Tandava Yoga in Kelowna, B.C. While I was sitting on my mat I started thinking about how meditation might be of benefit to introverts.

The purpose of meditation is to help us quiet our minds and over the years research has proven that meditation can help us to, among other things, reduce high blood pressure, sleep better, and improve our body’s immune functioning. In fact, meditation even helps students achieve better grades in school.

But how can meditation help introverts to succeed?

Stephen A Diamond, PhD writing in Psychology Today suggests that meditation is an “introverted activity one that extroverts should do more of and introverts less”. Diamond argues that introverts need to spend more time extroverting themselves in order to find balance in their lives. Fair enough.

Getting back to the meditation class at Tandava Yoga, our instructor informed us that humans are capable of processing 2000 thoughts per hour. Those of you familiar with meditation will know about the “monkey brain” which refers to how our thoughts jump around in our heads not unlike a monkey jumping from tree to tree.

I believe that the concept of the “monkey brain” applies equally to both introverts and extroverts. And I have to disagree with Dr. Diamond. Meditation may be an “introverted activity” in that it is typically done quietly but I believe that introverts should spend more time meditating, not less.

You see, introverts tend to think too much. We like to spend time in our heads and when this activity is combined with the excess dopamine that naturally occurs in our introverted brains we are in danger of being overstimulated.  And this is what saps our energy and why we need to meditate in order to help us calm down and function better!

There are many different types of meditation but the one thing that is common to all of them is learning how to slow down and focus on our breath.

I found the following passage from Thich Nhat Hanh. It is called Thinking Less:

“While we practice conscious breathing, our thinking will slow down, and we can give ourselves a real rest. Most of the time, we think too much, and mindful breathing helps us to be calm, relaxed, and peaceful…Of course, thinking is important, but quite a lot of our thinking is useless.”

As an introvert thinking is my “fall-back position”. Even in a social situation I will often resort to thinking about what is going on or what I might say rather than just saying it. This is the exact opposite of what an extrovert will do. Most extroverts are more comfortable talking and don’t get stuck with words going round and round inside their heads.

Meditation is an important skill for introverts to learn. It can help us to get control over our “monkey brain” so that we can focus on what we want to say or do. This is especially true when we are in situations where there are a lot of distractions because these external distractions make it difficult for us to think clearly. Meditation can also provide what Dr. Brian Little calls a “restorative niche”. This is the place we can go to in order to de-stress and re-energize.