Tag: friendships

Create Joy

Oct 15, 2025

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by

NicoleHerronWrites

in creativity, family, grounding techniques, INFJ, journaling, Know Yourself, planning, routine, self-care, theatre, writing

What does it mean to you when you hear the phrase “Create Joy”? I imagine most people desire to have joy in their lives. I know I do. Yet, we often do nothing about it, hoping joy will just land in our laps without effort on our part. And when it doesn’t? We grumble and…
Author Con

Jul 22, 2025

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by

NicoleHerronWrites

in anxiety, author, exposure therapy, family, fiction, friendship, hiding, imposter syndrome, INFJ, introvert, intuition, journaling, lessons, mental health, planning, self promotion, social anxiety, social media, socializing, writing

Saturday I attended a local author convention. We have a friend we’ve known for almost thirty years that has been writing books for awhile now and had posted that she would be there. I thought it might be a good idea to get an idea of what it might be like from an author’s perspective.…
Introvert Adoption

Jun 14, 2025

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Niki Herron

in anxiety, exposure therapy, extrovert, family, friendship, grounding techniques, hiding, INFJ, introvert, journaling, musings, parenting, personality, social anxiety, socializing

Have you ever heard people talk about introverts being “adopted” by extroverts? While it sounds somewhat condescending and judgmental, it’s kind of true. Last week Squirrel and Monkey traveled with their theatre group to a theatre conference. Interestingly, in a room of five theatre kids, only one was an extravert. Seems odd, considering they are…
Cultivating Friendships

Sep 25, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in anxiety, church, cognitive distortions, friendship, hope, introvert, journaling, social anxiety, vulnerability

Making (and keeping) friends is hard. But maybe I’ve found an in?
Prayer Answered?

Aug 20, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in aging, anxiety, exercise, extrovert, Faith, friendship, INFJ, introvert, journaling, social anxiety

Yesterday I wrote about feeling lonely and missing having a close friend and how hard it is to meet new people. Now, I’ve written about that on more than one occasion with no change, but if you look close enough, you can almost always find God’s hands in your life. I’ve been attending a water…
New Driver Anxiety

Aug 19, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in aging, anxiety, church, friendship, grief, introvert, journaling, lessons, parenting, perfectionism, social anxiety

I know that teaching a teen to drive causes anxiety in the vast majority of parents, regardless of their general level of anxiety on a daily basis. Then there’s me. Yes, I have anxiety about their driving. But even more than that, I have anxiety about my ability to not just teach them, but hide…
FREEDOM!!!!!

Apr 30, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in anxiety, exercise, exposure therapy, family, friendship, introvert, journaling, lessons, parenting, perfectionism, routine, social anxiety, vulnerability

After an entire month of being confined to my home unless I could bum a ride off of someone, I am FREE! Yesterday I had my follow up with the orthopedist and he said I could start driving again and walk without the boot. He did say I might find my foot/ankle getting tired and…
Reluctant lessons

Apr 15, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in anxiety, cognitive distortions, family, friendship, grief, journaling, lessons, parenting, social anxiety, vulnerability

As a teacher and librarian, I believe in life-long learning. I have often used the phrase “First Attempt in Learning” when teaching students that it’s okay to fail as long as you learn from the mistakes. Sometimes life throws lessons your way without warning. And usually they are the lessons we least want to learn. …
Lonely

Feb 27, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in anxiety, cognitive distortions, friendship, journaling, shame, social anxiety

I’ve been feeling lonely the last few days. I can’t give a specific reason, really. I’ve actually been with people a lot this week. Friday night we went to dinner at the home of a family from church, Sunday was church, Confirmation class, and a women’s luncheon. Yesterday I had my water aerobics class. I’ve…
New routines

Feb 24, 2024

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by

Niki Herron

in anxiety, church, family, friendship, journaling, routine, social anxiety, theatre

My daughter has been taking aerial silks classes for several years now. I had noticed that she wasn’t talking about it nearly as enthusiastically as she had been, but she never said anything about quitting. When she decided to try out for color guard I told her she would probably have to quit aerial just…