On the Inside Inert = peace. At least to me. As ChrisC1983 has said, someone can say something that gets through all the way. Some conversations on AC have made me aware of my self, a very few real life people have made me decide to take action, to change direction or jump track altogether.
Yes, I can and do keep awareness of how I am behaving, though 10 or 15 minutes of conversation with a stranger is a self imposed limit. "Leaving myself out" also of course left out assessments of the situation from my point of view, or rather, based on my wants, needs and plans. While this kept me safer in the moment, it also leads to mistakes and problems in the future.
(For example, it takes so much of my brain just to get through a doctor appointment, that when the check-out lady asks if I need a follow up, I think that I think for a moment and say no even though the doc just told me to make a follow up date. Embarassing, because the doc knows about me, so she says, "she needs a follow up.")
Yes, I can and do keep awareness of how I am behaving, though 10 or 15 minutes of conversation with a stranger is a self imposed limit. "Leaving myself out" also of course left out assessments of the situation from my point of view, or rather, based on my wants, needs and plans. While this kept me safer in the moment, it also leads to mistakes and problems in the future.
(For example, it takes so much of my brain just to get through a doctor appointment, that when the check-out lady asks if I need a follow up, I think that I think for a moment and say no even though the doc just told me to make a follow up date. Embarassing, because the doc knows about me, so she says, "she needs a follow up.")