Don’t you just wish you could plug in your social batteries while you are working? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way. It’s not that easy. But how can you recharge your energy levels then? The Power of Silence!
As an introvert, you start your day with a full social battery on good days, at least if you had some time to recharge from your past day. When you have to talk and interact with a lot of people, this battery will run out pretty soon if you are introverted.
Introverts can even have a kind of ‘social hangover‘. If you are an introvert you probably know what I am talking about but if you aren’t, here follows an explanation of the phenomenon. When you have a social hangover you feel drained or exhausted from overstimulating social contacts, this can be from the previous day or multiple days. The cure to this social hangover is some alone time.
Not only social contact can drain the energy of an introvert but also overstimulation of the senses can have this effect. Introverts can get quite overwhelmed when there are a lot of things happening in their environment. They need to be with themselves to unwind after a busy day.
This blog post will help you discover ways to recharge your energy as an introvert.
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5 Tips to Recharge Your Energy Levels – The Power of Silence
1. Energy Givers and Takers
Everybody has different energy givers and energy takers, get to know yourself better and discover yours.
How you can determine your energy givers and energy takers
How can you do this? You will have to spend some time thinking about these things or you could do some field research.
The first option is just thinking about things that give and take your energy. By remembering how you felt after certain situations, activities, interactions with certain people, etc.
The second option is to keep a journal for a few weeks and take a note every time you notice your energy level changing. This will be multiple times a day so pick a journal that is easy to carry with you. You could also make quick notes on your phone instead of a notebook.
Energy givers and takers can be activities, tasks, and even people. Let me give you a few examples of activities or things that might be energy givers and takers for you.
Possible energy givers:
- Absorbing some sunshine
- Nature walks
- Quiet space
- Spending time with animals
- Listening to music
- Making art
- Connecting with loved ones
- Creating something
- Meditating
- Taking a bath or shower
- Reading
- Singing
- …
Possible energy takers:
- Noisy environments
- Loud people
- Tight deadlines
- Multitasking
- Physical pains
- Stress
- Demanding tasks
- Complaining or negative people
- Messy environments
- …
Figure out what gives and takes your energy and protect it as much as possible. Fit in as many energy takers as you can in your day-to-day life and reduce your energy takers whenever possible. You can recharge your energy with your energy givers every day.
2. Reduce Sensory Overload
A lot of introverts are highly sensitive as well and sensory overload is something to watch out for.
When you are stimulated all day long and you absorb every stimulus that comes at you during your waking hours, you will be exhausted pretty soon. Protect yourself against sensory overload by doing the following things.
You might also want to read this blog post about noise sensitivity to learn more about this.
Think about all your senses, every sense can be overstimulated so let’s list them all and see what we can do to give them some rest.
Vision
Bright lights can drain your energy quickly if you spend many hours in them on a daily basis. It’s best if you spend your daytime hours working and living in natural daylight. If this is not possible for you, take enough breaks to give your eyes some rest and spend a little time outdoors. If you have a job where you need to focus your eyes on things nearby, make sure to also give them some rest by staring into the distance a few times every hour.
Sound
Noise-canceling headphones are a lifesaver! When you are disturbed by loud noises, these headphones or earphones will help you to keep your focus and energy in place. You could also get a good set of earplugs to block most of the surrounding sounds. The sounds don’t even have to be really loud to be disturbing or overstimulating. People talking or traffic noise can disturb your peace just as much. If possible you can also try to remove the noise or move yourself to a more quiet place.
Touch
This sensitivity to touch applies particularly to highly sensitive individuals. The texture of the clothing you wear can affect your senses and overly stimulate them if your focus is drawn to this. A good example is clothing labels. As a highly sensitive introvert myself, I cut the labels out of most of my clothes because they distract and irritate me all day if I don’t. Of course, this only goes for labels that are in direct contact with your bare skin. Labels in coats can stay put.
Smell
Another sense that is mostly distracting for HSPs is smell. Of course, a stinky smell can bother everyone but when you have a very good sense of smell, something that smells bad can prevent you from thinking straight. I can not understand what a person is saying to me when they have a smelly breath, the stink takes over my brain power. Working in an environment with a terrible smell all the time would be impossible for me.
Taste
Taste is the sense that will bring you the least problems daily. All the other senses are stimulated all the time when you are awake. You choose what to eat and when you put something into your mouth. You have more control over this sense. So you won’t be overstimulated very easily by your taste buds.
Reduce sensory overload to recharge your energy
So to preserve more of your energy, be aware of all the stimuli you are subjected to daily. Reduce as many unpleasant stimuli as possible and you will have more energy left for important things.
3. Alone Time
Alone time is of vital importance for every introvert! It will help you think and focus, and you will preserve so much more energy than when you constantly have to interact with or listen to people.
At work
We live in an extroverted world, most jobs are more suited for extroverts, and therefore many introverts land a job that doesn’t perfectly fit their needs. You can say, look for another job! But this is easier said than done.
If you don’t want to look for another more fitting job or you did a lot of research already but didn’t find anything that would work for your personal situation, keep reading.
As changing jobs isn’t easy, it might be easier to make a few changes to your current job. Make your current job more introvert-friendly by trying to adjust a few things. Let me give you a few examples.
Work from home
Working from home has pleased many introverts during the COVID-19 pandemic. If it was possible during this health crisis, why can’t it still be like this? A lot of jobs have the option of being done at home. Ask your employer if you can work from home full-time or maybe part-time if they like this better. When you do this part-time, you will stay more connected to your coworkers and this can be a good thing if you like them!
Your own office
When can’t work from home because your employer or work setting doesn’t allow it, you should strive to get an office space to yourself. This is so much better for your concentration and energy than an open office. If getting your own personal office is a step too far, maybe there is a space that you can use for a few hours each day to work in silence. Have a chat with your employer and see what is possible.
Quiet room for breaks
If you don’t have your own office and you can’t work from home, the things you should be able to control are your breaks! Take your breaks and enjoy some quiet time during them. If you can’t find a place to sit in peace inside the building, take a walk outside. Shutting down everything around you for a while can help you recharge a bit of your energy. Just sitting in silence doing nothing can help you relax your senses and clear your head.
Free time
When you’re done working and you feel totally depleted, you probably don’t want to engage in social activities anymore. If your job requires you to be a social butterfly and this isn’t in your nature, you will need some time in the evenings and weekends to be by yourself. And this is fine! Your extroverted friends won’t understand it, but you need to do the right thing for you.
How can you fill your free time with activities that will restore your energy level? Take a look at your energy givers from the first tip in this post. You can do anything that will make you feel better. When you are with someone, this can also be doing something in the same room without talking to each other.
You can make a list of activities you enjoy doing and see which activity matches your energy level at that moment. You will recharge your energy by doing the things you love.
4. Self-Care
Alone time can be filled with self-care activities. Taking care of yourself is important even more when you don’t really have the energy for it. There are lots of self-care activities that don’t require a whole lot of energy and that will give you more energy in return!
A good example of something that will boost your energy and help you feel better is taking a shower or a bath. You will feel more refreshed and relaxed after doing this for sure! If you feel like you don’t have enough energy, go for the bath. You can lie down and recharge in hot soapy water while watching a show on Netflix, lovely!
Another self-care activity that will help you gain some energy is eating a healthy meal and drinking enough water. This will recharge your energy for a longer time if you compare it to eating a sugary snack that gives you a quick boost followed by a major energy drop. Always try to make enough time for a lunch break at work so you won’t be tempted to snack through your entire day.
Meditating and doing yoga are also very nice self-care activities that will give you more energy in return.
Enjoy the silence while doing your self-care activities or put on a comforting show or relaxing playlist.
5. Accept and Respect your Introversion
Although there are almost equally as many extroverts as there are introverts, being extroverted is a lot of the time seen as better and more successful. Extroverts often appear more confident and they can present themselves better than most introverts. They are also better at networking and this is an important skill to get somewhere career-wise. When you know a lot of people it’s easier to know the right people to help you make progress in your life.
You need to accept and respect your introversion as it has many great qualities as well! Introverts are great listeners, are very detail-oriented, and are often well-prepared and thorough. They dive into the deep end and are often great analyzers.
When you don’t like the fact that you are introverted, you will probably struggle more and try to change yourself to be a better fit into your environment. You should change your environment to you instead of the opposite! You deserve to feel good about yourself and your ways.
When you fully accept your introversion, you will live more in peace. You won’t feel pressured to say yes to every social invitation when you actually want to stay at home and watch your favorite show or read a good book. Live your life the way you want it! Be considerate to others but don’t exaggerate, you matter too!
Conclusion
As introverts who live in a world made for extroverts, we need to know how to recharge our energy to keep going and enjoy our lives more.
Introversion isn’t about being an anti-social person who spends time alone rather than with their loved ones. We do want to spend time with our loved ones! But we need to find a balance between socializing and resting after too much social contact.
There are so many pros to being an introvert if you learn how to give yourself the things you need to thrive. Take enough time for yourself so you can achieve more of your goals.
Embrace the introvert inside of you and give it the care it needs. Embrace the power of silence! You deserve this!