Internal Exhuastion
Sometimes I forget what a raging introvert I am. Its not that I am always awkward socially, or that I hate being around people, or that I don't need socializing to be happy. It's that I find socializing exhausting, I process internally, and that I need to get away to re-boot.
The past week I lead a retreat for 65 adults. It was only a day long retreat but I had been working on it for weeks and was pretty nervous. Honestly, I cared a lot about the material and cared a lot about the peoples impressions of the retreat. I coordinated the whole thing, faciliated the whole thing, and gave a talk during the retreat. So yeah, I was pooped afterwards. But then my week continued with work, meetings, teenagers, family etc. So with the retreat as the pivitol event of my week I never got any recovery time. Needless to say I floated into this weekend exhuasted. I haven't felt this bone tired since pregnancy (different than newborn tired because that is clearly related to lack of sleep).
It is sunday now and I am just now feeling back to normal- not yet rejuvinated. But here's what I've been doing to get away, have my peace, and do my processing. Gardening, trying to sleep (thank you Sean for this morning especially!), and not worrying about the laundry!
The past week I lead a retreat for 65 adults. It was only a day long retreat but I had been working on it for weeks and was pretty nervous. Honestly, I cared a lot about the material and cared a lot about the peoples impressions of the retreat. I coordinated the whole thing, faciliated the whole thing, and gave a talk during the retreat. So yeah, I was pooped afterwards. But then my week continued with work, meetings, teenagers, family etc. So with the retreat as the pivitol event of my week I never got any recovery time. Needless to say I floated into this weekend exhuasted. I haven't felt this bone tired since pregnancy (different than newborn tired because that is clearly related to lack of sleep).
It is sunday now and I am just now feeling back to normal- not yet rejuvinated. But here's what I've been doing to get away, have my peace, and do my processing. Gardening, trying to sleep (thank you Sean for this morning especially!), and not worrying about the laundry!
I read a book a LONG time ago, when K was probably 2 ish. I wondered if she had ADD or ADHD. The book I came across at our co-op preschool was "Raising Your Spirited Child" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Raising-Your-Spirited-Child-Perceptive/dp/0060923288
I don't have the book anymore so I can't look this up, but she had a really great explanation of "introverts" and "extroverts". Extroverts re-energize themselves through others and introverts re-energize themselves through themselves.
After being at the retreat all day, and expending so much energy leading up to the event (planning it), you need(ed) time to re-energize YOURSELF.