Being invited to share signals care; assuming others will volunteer can leave them feeling unseen.

Sharing a similar experience can build connection—or hijack the conversation.

Good follow-up questions grow from listening, not from planning what you’ll say next.

I recently got invited to a Halloween party where I knew only the hosts. People close to me think I am a major extrovert, so they may assume that going to a party filled with strangers would be easy-peasy for me.

But the truth is, I had to force myself to go. Quite honestly, I love deep, meaningful, one-on-one conversations—the deeper, the better—but small talk with new people? That’s a completely different story.

I decided to push myself outside my comfort zone to not only go to this party, but show up in a 1920s flapper costume. I definitely got an A for effort.

Although I had a good time, I must admit that, in some ways, the evening left me feeling empty.

Have you ever left a conversation knowing practically everything about another person’s life, only to realize that they learned almost nothing about yours?

They told you........

© Psychology Today