Quiet Lessons for the Introvert’s Soul

By: Gabriela Casineanu

Narrated by: Adam Pracht

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Do social interactions drain your energy? Do you consider yourself quiet or different? The traits that you might think are holding you back could actually be your superpowers! You just need to see them in a different light. An introvert herself, the award-winning and best-selling author Gabriela Casineanu will guide you along the path to discover your unique strengths - like being on the hero’s journey for the introvert!

Through a series of interviews with successful introverts, Casineanu reveals the strengths that come from being quiet and reserved. Authors, professionals, entrepreneurs, and even a top sales performer share how they overcame their challenges in a world that assumes that successful people are extroverts.

Casineanu invites you to reflect on these stories and identify which introvert strengths helped her subjects become their best selves. You’ll also be encouraged to reflect on your journey so far, to discover what abilities you've relied on in tough situations. This awareness will make you better appreciate your introvert strengths and will inspire you to bring out the best in yourself to be more successful!

With this audiobook:

• Learn how to manage your energy so you can have more for the projects you love
• Discover tools and strategies you can draw upon to overcome your challenges
• Gain new perspectives on the introverts' characteristics and why the world needs them

Gabriela Casineanu has a deep understanding of introverts and how they can tap into their hidden talents to thrive in all aspects of life. Using her coaching expertise, you’ll be challenged to unlock your talents and inspired to put them to the test. Conversational, witty, and fun, Quiet Lessons for the Introvert’s Soul shines a light on how introverts can contribute to building a better world - even if they do it quietly.

Bonus: list of introvert strengths (100+)

©2019 Gabriela Casineanu (P)2020 Gabriela Casineanu

One more Introvert helped

I came to listen to the title when it was recommended by the narrator, Adam Pracht. He happens to be my son. It took a little time to listen past that but his narration gave enough variety to the interviewees that I quickly was into the content. The book seems to be especially well suited to the use of a narration. Each chapter/interviewee had more life than a printed page would have had. I downloaded the list of strengths and will refer to it as I continue reflecting on the content. At this point I most appreciate the focus on strengths. I have come to think of being an introvert as having an app or computer program that I have been using for a while and then met an expert on the app. The benefit would be to learn from the expert all kinds of functionality (strengths) that I didn't know were in the coding. I will be exploring these strengths for some time to come. Again, I know the narrator's voice very well and he used it with the skill of a versatile professional.

I knew too much.

With this review, I felt like I could have written pages worth of information relating to how I felt after listening to this audiobook. Even though this book didn’t appeal to me, I’m going to leave 3-stars because I could see how it could help other introverts.

I requested this book because I was in a reading rut and looking for something out of my usual reading material. Let me start by saying that I love learning about people and how they can be so different/similar to each other given their locations, how they were raised, their interests, life experiences, etc. When my husband convinced me to go to college, I ended up getting a minor in psychology. Why not major in it? Originally that was the plan but being an introvert myself, I started to associate psychology with having to interact with people, and I’m not good in that area. So maybe I already knew too much about introverts and extroverts and that’s why I felt somewhat bored with these interviews. I’m not sure.

Regarding specific interviews, I had a hard time believing Carol was an introvert. Even before she started taking classes (I forgot what for), she seemed very outgoing, able to hold conversations with others. With Charles, Gabriella stated that introverts were modest. Yet, he, as well as her, brought up the fact he was a top seller multiple times. I didn’t really get that. Does that equal modesty?

Then there was Adina. She stated she loved the outdoors.

“Adina: I love people and people communicate. So I realized I have to do that too.”

“Gabriella: You have to find a way to do that too. That’s what you’re saying?” Why would the interviewer have repeated the statement and then asked a question as though it hadn’t just been stated whether or not the interviewee felt that way? That questioning just seemed strange.

I felt most of the interviewees repeated the same things, like what made them an introvert, and it was only a small number of new/different introvert aspects (from each person) that were brought up. Was this done on purpose as a way to show that while the interviewees were different people (different jobs, sexes, lives, etc.), they had commonalities because they were all introverts? I was sort of left with the impression that the interviewees had already done research on being an introvert; was that the case? Had they been identified as introverts by family and/or friends and asked to be interviewed, not really knowing what an introvert was or specifics about it, then that would have been more interesting, at least to me.

I honestly felt they weren’t real people based on many of their responses, how they spoke. The interviews didn’t come across as natural-sounding in any way. Like I said earlier, they all know what an introvert was and examples of what it meant to be an introvert, then go on to explain how being an introvert had affected their lives, repeatedly bringing up the fact they were introverts.
There were also several areas of the interview process that caught my attention but in a negative way. For example… That was one of them. All the interviewees, while explaining themselves, would say “for example.” Why though? Don’t most people when explaining something just explain it? The fact the majority used “for example” was too coincidental for my liking. I wasn’t a fan of Gabriella leading the interviewees either. If they’re supposed to be talking about themselves (keep in mind the reader is told multiple times introverts are good with one-on-one conversations), I would think they’d be able to speak their minds without help—her essentially telling them what to say or looking for a response with a “Yes” or “No” answer.

Moving on… I liked the narrator’s voice, but I didn’t feel there was that much of a difference between the characters’ voices. I could see with more practice him getting better. I'd listen to him again though.

Personal Comments:

Some of the introvert aspects I can associate myself with, while others I can’t. For example, the biggest “aspect” that was brought up a lot involved how introverts don’t like to talk about themselves. For me, I have no problem telling my life story to anyone that’s interested in hearing it. While I don’t like meeting new people or interacting in groups, if someone asks me a question, I’ll answer it. Unlike the interviewees who I felt the majority didn’t really have a hard time communicating with Gabriella when they were speaking about something that interested them, that’s not the case with me. Even if I’m talking about something I’m passionate about, I feel like it’s very obvious, screaming-in-your-face action that I’m an introvert and not good at talking. Why? Because once I get going, my voice rises, and the speed at which I talk increases. When this was brought to me attention years ago, I’ve since tried to be more aware of what’s going on while I’m speaking, but I haven’t mastered or taken control over this problem yet.

Another aspect involved adapting. I’m very good at adapting to my surroundings. While it was mentioned several times that introverts get more uncomfortable/overwhelmed the longer they’re in a group setting, again, that’s not the case with me. I’ll feel overwhelmed/nervous upon “entering” the group and will try to just blend in with the shadows, but after a while, my nervous levels will decrease and I’ll start to feel a little more comfortable; but that doesn’t mean I’m going to start talking unless someone asks me something. With adapting and caring for a child with autism and a husband constantly deploying in the Army, I was always asked how I managed it, taking care of her with no real support. Adaptation. I would always respond with “I go with the flow. This is my situation and I’ve learned to deal with it.”

With being able to explain things in a simple way, that’s definitely not me. LOL I hate having to talk to people if I have to explain something. I’m horrible. I’m a beat-around-the-bush kind of explainer. No matter how hard I try to be direct with my answer, the other person is usually looking at me and I imagine them doing that hand motion like “Come on already, get to the point.” This is why, I believe, I have a fear of using the telephone. I’d rather look like a fool in person. That way they can get a better picture of me as opposed to just hearing my voice. I have gotten better with this over the years. With my husband deploying, I had to learn to adapt and make phone calls, involving explanations, myself. But with these, I would write down what I wanted to say prior to the call. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t.

In the end, I feel like I’ve gotten better with being an introvert over the years. After meeting my husband decades ago, he helped to raise my confidence when we’d go out in public and/or have to interact with people. Either way, adaptation has been the biggest help for me.

I think had Gabriella found some younger folks to include in the interview process, like teens and those in their early-to- mid-twenties, that would have been much more interesting, providing a larger age difference as opposed to sticking with older folks that seemed to all be around middle-aged.

I received a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed more than i expected

I would give this book a 3.5 rating. Usually I steer away from psychology and self-help books because I find them to be too preachy. However, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and I consider myself an extreme introvert. With that said, I felt like I knew too much about introverts due to having two psychology degrees in order to give this book a five star rating. I found the content to be repetitive, which may have been the point. However, what I liked most about this book is that it did not make me feel ashamed of being an introvert as I have started to feel ashamed for being one due to constructive feedback others have given me about qualities they feel I need to improve on such as social skills with other people. I feel a more diverse sample of interviewees could have been used for this book, as all 12 interviewees were working professionals in different fields, and I am not a working professional yet.I feel a more diverse sample would have benefited me more, and possibly would benefit future readers of this book. I think my disability has made me into the introvert I am, and it would be interesting to see If the author would gather interviewees with disabilities in future books to see how readers with disabilities who consider themselves as introverts could improve on certain skills based on the challenges they face and encounter on a daily basis. Although I was looking for a book that focused on how extremely introverted people can improve their social skills with others, this book did open my mind to reading other self-help books and checking out this genre overall and it did make me not feel so pressured to be extroverted and to be OK with how introverted I am. I am curious to see if the author writes some more books that are similar to this one in the future as I would consider checking it out!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great book but not for me.

This book was given to me at my request I am providing an honest and voluntary review.
Before listening to this book I used to joke around about being a gregarious introvert. Now I am not so convinced that I am an introvert at all. There were some things I could relate to, but by the time I was 4 interviews in, I really wanted to take my Ritalin so I could sit still and listen. It was just too much that didn’t apply to me. The subject is a great one though.