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Quiet Lessons for the Introvert’s Soul
Do social interactions drain your energy? Do you consider yourself quiet or different?
These characteristics may actually be your superpowers!
An introvert herself, the award-winning and best-selling author Gabriela Casineanu will guide you along the path to discover your unique strengths and inner wisdom—like being on the Hero’s Journey for the introvert!
The traits that you might think are holding you back could actually be your strongest assets—you just need to see them in a different light.
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 in your future challenges!
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!
Not an introvert? The increased awareness about the introverts’ rich inner world that comes from reading this book will make you understand and collaborate better with the introverts you come across in your life.
Curious to find out more? You’re just at a click away!
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Editorial review
I absolutely love this book! I especially treasure the author’s takeaways at the end of each interview. As an introvert myself, I can identify with so many! I so appreciate how she made the connections between what has been said and how this applies to other introverts. These valuable chapters of exploration help us understand, appreciate and further develop our own unique strengths.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 27, 2019
19 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Gabriela Casineanu
27 books25 followersCertified professional coach, award-winning author, and artist, Gabriela Casineanu considers life as a self-discovery journey worth exploring. Her creative and curious soul didn’t care much about the MBA and 18 years experience in the technical field (engineering, IT, quality assurance). It found a way to turn things around, leading to coaching (individuals, teams), training, creative entrepreneurship, artistic expressions, and writing.
Through her coaching practice, Gabriela helped thousands of professionals to advance their careers, and creative entrepreneurs to understand how to use the power of their mind to become more successful.
Gabriela loves to creatively combine concepts and techniques from various fields, and is passionate about building a better world by tapping into introverts’ power.
She finds strength in nature and loves intuitive painting, nature photography, outdoor activities, visiting sacred places, the Holographic Universe concept, and ...wearing that turquoise ski jacket! :-)
Subscribe to author's updates: https://gabrielacasineanu.com/series
Book series (all standalone books):
• Introvert Strengths
• Photo-Coaching (self-coaching books)
• Job Search/Career)
• Books for Authors
https://www.amazon.com/author/gabriel...
Through her coaching practice, Gabriela helped thousands of professionals to advance their careers, and creative entrepreneurs to understand how to use the power of their mind to become more successful.
Gabriela loves to creatively combine concepts and techniques from various fields, and is passionate about building a better world by tapping into introverts’ power.
She finds strength in nature and loves intuitive painting, nature photography, outdoor activities, visiting sacred places, the Holographic Universe concept, and ...wearing that turquoise ski jacket! :-)
Subscribe to author's updates: https://gabrielacasineanu.com/series
Book series (all standalone books):
• Introvert Strengths
• Photo-Coaching (self-coaching books)
• Job Search/Career)
• Books for Authors
https://www.amazon.com/author/gabriel...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 3, 2020
This book started out with a lot of promotional material and happy face emojis which nearly turned me off reading it. I'm so glad I kept reading, though, because the rest of the book had really helpful material. I enjoyed hearing about other introverts' stories and how they overcome their obstacles. I saved a lot of highlights to look at later when I need inspiration.
February 3, 2019
Gabriela Casineanu is an award-winning author whose best-selling books about introverts have helped thousands of readers, world-wide, gain a clearer, stronger sense of their own potential. Her latest book, Quiet Lessons for the Introvert’s Soul, takes that inquiry into personal well-being to a deeper, more powerful level.
We all know how extroverts would go about writing a book like this—confidently proclaiming (in BOLD TYPE): “Five Proven Steps to Ensure Lifetime Success!” “The 8 Secrets of Perfect Relationships!” “Seven Ways You Sabotage Your Own Happiness and How to Fix It!” Extroverts, typically, are confident that they have the answer to your problems—and don’t mind telling you.
Casineanu’s “quiet lessons” are, instead, about reflective discovery—allowing the truth to emerge naturally from within. The book contains interviews with 11 introverts from a dozen countries. Each of the people whose stories come richly to life in this book faced and overcame difficult personal and professional challenges by drawing on strengths they initially didn’t know they possessed. To varying degrees, each needed to question their own limiting beliefs and to learn to see themselves as valuable, strong people in their own right—rather than as flawed, imperfect copies of extroverts. At the end of each interview, Casineanu highlights the strengths each interviewee discovered in his or her journey. She concludes with her own experience of self-discovery.
Casineanu calls these accounts “Introvert’s Hero Journeys”—and she’s right. I found the stories powerfully moving and thought-provoking.
This is not a book to rush through. Its purpose—and value—is in the insights that emerge for readers (introverts and extroverts) as they engage each story and then reflect on their own lives.
What also struck me was that the characteristic “introvert” strengths brought out in this book, like listening, respecting different viewpoints, acting with integrity and authenticity, working collaboratively towards shared goals, are desperately needed in the fearful, angry, and intolerant world we now struggle to live in. In a noisy world, perhaps we all need to tune into the quieter lessons of our souls.
We all know how extroverts would go about writing a book like this—confidently proclaiming (in BOLD TYPE): “Five Proven Steps to Ensure Lifetime Success!” “The 8 Secrets of Perfect Relationships!” “Seven Ways You Sabotage Your Own Happiness and How to Fix It!” Extroverts, typically, are confident that they have the answer to your problems—and don’t mind telling you.
Casineanu’s “quiet lessons” are, instead, about reflective discovery—allowing the truth to emerge naturally from within. The book contains interviews with 11 introverts from a dozen countries. Each of the people whose stories come richly to life in this book faced and overcame difficult personal and professional challenges by drawing on strengths they initially didn’t know they possessed. To varying degrees, each needed to question their own limiting beliefs and to learn to see themselves as valuable, strong people in their own right—rather than as flawed, imperfect copies of extroverts. At the end of each interview, Casineanu highlights the strengths each interviewee discovered in his or her journey. She concludes with her own experience of self-discovery.
Casineanu calls these accounts “Introvert’s Hero Journeys”—and she’s right. I found the stories powerfully moving and thought-provoking.
This is not a book to rush through. Its purpose—and value—is in the insights that emerge for readers (introverts and extroverts) as they engage each story and then reflect on their own lives.
What also struck me was that the characteristic “introvert” strengths brought out in this book, like listening, respecting different viewpoints, acting with integrity and authenticity, working collaboratively towards shared goals, are desperately needed in the fearful, angry, and intolerant world we now struggle to live in. In a noisy world, perhaps we all need to tune into the quieter lessons of our souls.
February 4, 2019
Enlightening and Insightful
Professional coach and author Gabriela Gasineanu has written an engaging book. Through interviews with introverts, the reader finds nuggets in each person’s life story as an introvert and how they each overcame challenges which all tapped into strengths they already had or developed. The book includes a bonus— a list of introverts’ strengths. Highly recommended to introverts as well as the extroverts in their lives.
Professional coach and author Gabriela Gasineanu has written an engaging book. Through interviews with introverts, the reader finds nuggets in each person’s life story as an introvert and how they each overcame challenges which all tapped into strengths they already had or developed. The book includes a bonus— a list of introverts’ strengths. Highly recommended to introverts as well as the extroverts in their lives.
July 29, 2020
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, Gabriela 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.”
“Gabriela: 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 Gabriela 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.
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, Gabriela 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.”
“Gabriela: 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 Gabriela 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.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 21, 2019
Gabriela Casineau has made helping introverts her mission and with her newest book, Quiet Lessons for the Introverts Soul, she shows how introverts use their strengths to overcome challenges. Written as a series of interviews, each participant identifies how being an introvert has presented challenges in their lives either personally or professionally and the tricks they used to overcome them. At the end of each interview, Casineau highlights the strengths utilized by each participant. The books offers a number of strategies for introverts, but would be a good read for any extroverts seeking to understand the introverts in their lives.
May 13, 2024
Honestly, pretty boring
I'm sorry, but any literary author who holds up Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg as examples of anything positive, or in a favorable light, immediately loses all credibility with me. Therefore, I found this book pretty boring, and I quickly lost interest after the mentioning of the likes of modern day eugenicist Bill Gates, so I breezed through, made note of the few useful parts and gave no regard to the insignificant rest. The problem with authors these days is that they always name celebrities and "famous" people as examples of something, instead of pointing out normal, unknown, everyday people as examples of the same thing.
I'm sorry, but any literary author who holds up Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg as examples of anything positive, or in a favorable light, immediately loses all credibility with me. Therefore, I found this book pretty boring, and I quickly lost interest after the mentioning of the likes of modern day eugenicist Bill Gates, so I breezed through, made note of the few useful parts and gave no regard to the insignificant rest. The problem with authors these days is that they always name celebrities and "famous" people as examples of something, instead of pointing out normal, unknown, everyday people as examples of the same thing.
January 30, 2019
I enjoy reading Gabriela Casineau’s books and this one did not book disappoint. The book has many interviews that the author did with introverts in getting their insight and thoughts on their strengths. Being introvert myself it was easy for me to identify with many of the stories shared. There are many lessons and wisdom that was shared. I learned that I can be my quiet self while I pursue my dreams without having to pretend to be someone I'm not. Highly recommend this book!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews