Hi everyone, happy Tuesday.
I came across this quote from a lovely book by Matt Haig this morning, and I wanted to share it:
It's a super lovely and comforting book as a whole, I'd highly recommend it if you are looking for some kind and wise words to read.
I thought the concept of feeling like an outsider actually being something that unites most of us is interesting and, like Matt Haig himself writes, 'as reassuring as it was paradoxical'.
One of the reasons why I like this community is that it feels like one of the few spaces where we can talk about things like this. Thank you all for being here, for making this real.
The quote also made me wonder about the differences between the experience of social anxiety, and the experience of feeling like an imposter or not fitting in. My feeling is that they often co-occur, but that they are not quite the same.
My intuition is that social anxiety is a 'bigger' experience, that the fear of being judged, being talked about negatively, having people laugh at us, think we are weird or awkward or boring or embarrassing or stupid or ugly, or whatever it is, almost 'trumps' any feeling of not being included - does that ring true for you?
For myself, I think I can both feel like I am part of a group or community in some way, and still experience social anxiety.
I can also feel like I don't really fit in, but if I am experiencing social anxiety, that is a more dominant experience, which makes it feel more urgent and important.
What about you?
As an introvert, I also wonder whether my intuition is specific to introverts. I wonder how this feeling of not fitting in is experienced by extroverts? I imagine that it must be quite different, maybe someone might be willing to share their thoughts?
Hope you are having good and interesting days at the moment.
Yours,
Sofie