by Zoumana Coulibaly

Created on: December 23, 2008

Knowing one self better is no easy walk in the park. Just like with science or sports among others, some people have the innate qualifications to understand themselves and their environment better. Meanwhile, having those qualities intrinsically does not mean that one automatically knows himself or herself better. Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, there are few steps that have to be followed and common sense tells us that it would be unwise to recommend the same treatment to both categories. Indeed, the introvert are prone to know themselves and their environment better than their extrovert counterpart. In the first part of this article, i will deal with those who recognize themselves as introvert and how they can know themselves better. The second part will deal with the extrovert.

There are two types of introverts: the shy and what i call the natural introvert who are not shy but just can't fit in the crowd. No matter which category you belong to, the road to self knowledge is eased for the following two reasons.

1-The introvert is most often lonely. He or she has difficulties finding friends and keeping them. The introvert does not know how to deal with the crowd thus can voluntarily or involuntarily become lonely.

2-The introvert faces depression at least once or more. This is one consequence of loneliness. But, this type of depression is not severe and should not be severe all the time otherwise you do not fit in that category.

Being lonely and not severely depressed allows one to talk with himself and or herself. It gives the opportunity to think about life, why one is alive, and why one should not commit suicide. This meditation tells the introvert if there is one or more reasons or individual why he or she should stay alive. Indeed, the introvert is in constant meditation and thinking process. He or she has as best friend himself; he or she argues within and talk within; he or she laughs and cries within.

This inside knowledge involving loneliness, depression, and meditation is eased by the natural state of being an introvert and as mentioned earlier is not appropriate for an extrovert. Those belonging to the latter group of people mostly have lots of friends with whom they share a lots with. Therefore, it is important that they find that person they will blindly trust and ask them those essentials questions among others: What are my qualities and defect? And what kind of person do you think i am?

Since the extrovert is mostly of the times not lonely, the previous questions will allow him or her to have that talk with one self just like the introvert but through a third party.

Meanwhile, it is critical for the extrovert to immediately think about the answers to those questions and regularly ask them. By doing so, a regular meditation will come in as with the introvert and allow you to know yourself better.

Meditation is the ultimate step toward knowing one self better. Unfortunately, meditation is not eased when one is an extrovert. Therefore, the challenge is to stay in a constant thinking process comparable to meditation while keeping one's extrovert character. Succeeding in that meditating process will allow both the introvert and extrovert not only to know themselves better, but also to remain who they really are.

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