I find myself sometimes on one, sometimes on the other side of that fence. When I am blessed with equanimity, my language comes easily and fluidly. I teach highly technical topics to adults for a living, and so this works well for me. However, when my mind is not at rest, or when there’s conflict, or when somebody discusses emotional things, or somebody discusses things emotionally, or if there’s TV or music playing, I find it difficult to maintain concentration. Just as those outside intrusions are uncontrollable, so is my reaction to them. It’s not a voluntary reaction; I just get tongue-tied.
As far as being able to articulate, I think I have an easier time than many (including NTs) because I found reading the dictionary interesting as a kid. Without intention, I increased my vocabulary. My parents bought “Hardy Boys” novels for me, but I’d always head for the Miriam-Webster. I loved finding a word new to me, and especially so when the definition was full of words I didn’t know. I still remember when I stumbled on “epicalyx” - I was in heaven!
“epicalyx: an involucre resembling the calyx but consisting of a whorl of bracts that is exterior to the calyx or results from the union of the sepal appendages.”
Wow! After I read the definition, I didn’t know a thing more than I did before I read it, except that I had a list!
Another thing that has helped is my choice in authors of my reading material. C.S. Lewis and Ravi Zacharias are my two favorite authors. They both create full sentences, the way Americans just don’t any more. Sentences with full thoughts – sentences that go on for a paragraph because that’s what’s required to convey such complex thoughts. And not run-on sentences either! Did you ever read the first sentence of the American Declaration of Independence? Seventy-one words – now that’s a thought!
Anyway, that’s what’s helped me, I think: equanimity, the dictionary, and being mindful of the mind that wrote what I’m reading.