I often want downtime. In fact, I have consciously structured my day to maximize time for replenishment, contemplation, and recreation.* Do I need more time to myself than the average person? I don’t know. But I probably give myself more than the average person does.
That’s by design.
Last week is a typical example. It wasn’t particularly demanding time-wise. There were no particularly stressful time-sensitive projects to finish. Nonetheless, it was an intense week. This was partly due to a challenging interaction I had with someone (which I wrote about here), and partly due, frankly, to concern about my running and exercise life, which is evolving forward but causing me to change long-held and cherished routines. More about that another time. The bottom line is I finished the week feeling, for lack of a better word, psychically fatigued. I needed to recharge and get my “happy” back.
Fortunately, the weekend filled this need perfectly. I spent it watching movies with my wife, going to the gym for swimming and yoga, writing a few blog posts, reading a book on creating online courses (also with my wife), and working on my piano-playing book. In other words, I gave myself a lot of “me time,” which allowed me to write, create, think, and re-energize.
I’m not saying this is always my ideal weekend, but it often is. I generally love spending my free time doing these very things. As I wrote previously, sheltered-in-place life during the Pandemic largely suited me: it gave me permission to do what I often wanted to do anyway!
It’s not that I don’t want to go do new things, or interact with lots of people sometimes. Those can be great. Yet I need replenishment time. Often I am happiest if I can come and go as I please into social or semi-social situations, such as the cafe or the gym. I like feeling free to move about and do my thing. It helps me maintain my good mood and energy when I do choose to be around others.
Is this being highly-sensitive? Is this introversion? Or am I just fiercely independent? Probably all three! More important, it is generally what feels best for me.
Since this is my life I am living, I will keep doing it 🙂
*Incidentally, I wrote a very similar post back in 2019. Still the same old me…