Welcome to this week’s Five Minute Friday. Our instructions, via creator Kate Motaung: “Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.”
Today’s prompt: SILENCE
Do we ever get to the point that we overcome our tendency to silence when our mental wheels are flying and we actually do have something constructive to say?
I’m pretty familiar with all the research about introverts …. and the fact that we like to (need to?) process internally before speaking externally.
I don’t have any problem speaking spontaneously if given a topic. It’s one of the reasons I enjoyed Table Topics (2-minute impromptu speeches) at Toastmasters.
It’s when my rep is on the line, when I am being challenged for something I did or did not do, that I don’t speak up.
It’s probably why I like to write. It’s probably why I blog.
But silence in these situations does not equal power, sadly.
Contradicting most of what I wrote above (or maybe complementing it) is my constant filtering of how overly defensive I feel in any number of situations.
I will be silent instead of giving that defensiveness life or breath (except to people who know me really well, so thanks to you people with the patient ears and accepting psyches).
Silence is not weakness, exactly. It’s more of an atrophy of the impetus to take care of what we need to express. It’s like a drawbridge always stuck in the up position, keeping anything from crossing.
This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday linkup.
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
Tara Ulrich says
I love the analogy of the drawbridge. Im an introvert too. Blessed to be your neighbor at FMF this week.
Paula Kiger says
The drawbridge analogy was definitely a “your five minutes is almost up” epiphany but it does work for us introverts, doesn’t it?! I’ll visit your post soon.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser says
I weigh what I might say very carefully, because it hurts, a lot, to speak, and I run out of breath.
But there’s something insidious here…that I don’t say much at all, I feel sometimes like I don’t have much that’s worth saying. The circumstances change the paradigm, for the worse.
Great post, Paula.
Paula Kiger says
Yes they do (the circumstances). I could spend much more than five minutes on this, hopefully with more insight and less focus on self. Thank you for dropping by, Andrew.