Tips for Turtles without a Shell….

April 20, 2026

I started panicking this weekend. Serious can’t-get-off-the-couch, need-to-eat-lasagna panic. Wide eyed and wooly.

Here’s why: I am traveling TWICE in the next few months with groups of people I barely know. One is a six day trekking trip, the other a six day river trip.

The snag is, I am an introvert + a Highly Sensitive Person + an empath. This means I need quiet alone time to remember who I am, that I have 79 antenna instead of two so I pick up on everything, and that I absorb people’s emotions as if they were my own. Think turtle without a shell. Think feather in a hurricane.

It’s always a bit of a tactical conundrum being this open to stimulation. But I manage it by being quiet and alone. Once I recharge and remember who I am, I truly love being with people. I love being with peeps so much that I’m often mistaken for an extrovert, the life of the party, the silly goofy jokster. And I am those things. But only because, like a cell phone, I’ve been able to go home, plug in, and get fully recharged.

So what to do in a group of 16 people on a river where the only privacy I’ll have for 6 days is the potty and a pup-tent? Or in a forest with miles to go before I rest?

Last night, I wrested myself out of the prone position and started researching “introverts on group vacations”. And I came up with a plan. Here it is. Maybe this will be helpful to you. If you have more ideas, please, send me an email (anh@myhappiermind.com).

Sending love and the freedom/power to be exactly who you are even when surrounded by people for days in a remote forest.

Love, Anh

Remember:

accept others kindly for who they are but BE WHO I AM 100%. don’t loose touch of who I am
believe that i can be me, at peace, kindly, with all these people being who they are
Quiet is an important part of my personality and accepting and allowing that natural part of me is a beautiful, wonderful gift.
be in my body, 100%
My body knows what I need; trust it.
REMEMBER what my perspective is, who I am, what i want to get out of each day.
Each morning create a sacred space. Find intention for the day. Remember who I am.
Journal to get ya-yas out.
Don’t be critical (of person for being them). Be separate.

Communicate Kindly:

“Don’t think I don’t adore you! I need tons of down time and quiet time… so if I fade off to bed or get quiet on the trail, please don’t think you aren’t perfectly wonderful. I’m just recharging, zoning out, zenning out…. “
Say it with a smile will help
“I’m gonna go refuel so I can be the perky self you’re expecting!”
words: refuel, recharge, quiet time, down time, zen out

Assume: