do you need downtime?

savoring those quiet moments

I have always been a person that needed their alone time. As a child, I remember riding the school bus home and while everyone was being rowdy and yelling, I was quietly reading with my nose in a book. I enjoyed being by myself and too much interaction with other people always drained me. I had friends and greatly enjoyed the comradery and times we spent together but part of me was always looking forward to just getting home, back to my room, so I could be alone with my books.

I didn’t even know the terminology of the words introvert and extrovert until I was an adult, and even then, maybe I was in mid-twenties when I realized that I was a true introvert and that there was nothing wrong with me, this is just fundamentally who I am. Ah, freedom…

I remember when I worked in a corporate office and all of my work friends and I would gather in the break room and eat lunch together. We’d laugh together and share anecdotes and genuinely enjoy one another’s company. But there were times when, maybe once a week, I would eat my lunch at my desk, a good book propped up against my computer screen. My work friends would ask me later in the afternoon, “Hey, where were you at lunch? We missed you!” and I would just say “Oh, I had to get some stuff done, I had to work through lunchtime”. They were understanding.

But the truth of the matter was that I needed a break. I needed some time in the middle of my day where no one was talking to me. I needed to just not be having conversations for 20 minutes so I could recharge. I enjoy being around people and conversing, but I always need a break for a minute or two. I always need a bit of a regroup.

I like being an introvert and I feel like it is a superpower, a highly sensitive, in touch with all five senses all of the time, sort of superpower. I recently read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain, an introvert herself, and I found it really interesting. One point in particular being that introverts and extroverts show their particular personality traits early on in life, some as babies, some as toddlers. They’ve done studies on this which Cain goes into detail in, in the book, but basically, we really are wired into these two groups for the most part. There are also ambiverts who are a mix of both traits, but it is not as huge of a percentage as the other two groups.

But Cain also mentions how introverts really need their downtime after interacting with other people because these interactions can be draining for us mentally and we need to recharge. Yes, yes, and yes.

Personally, I enjoy a nice hot cup of tea and a good book or word search to recharge.

I also enjoy baking. I absolutely love it and find it so calming.

Meditation helps. Also, sometimes just watching old episodes of a show you’ve seen heaps of times, like Gilmore Girls. Just a few moments to just mentally recharge so we can keep going with the day.

I am curious to know if you need downtime as well. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Let me know in the comments!