Today I am tired. Very tired.
I am pretty sure that it mainly has to do with the last handful of days. My brother and his girfriend visited me and my twin sister, here in central Portugal and they spent 4 nights at my place. We spent those 5 days together, 24/7, and at least half of that time at my twin sister's place, with my extremely sweet but high energy niece, nephew and ( when he wasn't working ) my brother in law.
Although it was fun, I felt drained after returning home, yesterday night, and even more tired this morning.
Then, for coffee and early lunch, I spent two hours with my neighbor. And, afterwards, I reached out to a bunch of people by phone and different messaging apps.
It's now the end of the day and I don't feel less tired. I also didn't really rest today, eventhough I needed it and sure had the chance to do so.
A couple of hours ago, my twin sister called me to ask whether I can kid sit my niece and nephew tomorrow afternoon ( I already did so, yesterday afternoon ) and although I explained to her how tired I felt and tried to get her to find a plan B ( where B doesn't stand for brother ), this didn't work and I sacrificed myself for the greater good. In other words, I will go over to her place again, tomorrow, and kid sit my niece and nephew for an hour or 5.
Sometimes I think I am to good for this world ;<)
In line with all of the above - and getting to know myself better and better at the ripe ago of 40 - I want to turn your attention to this write up by @danielapevs that I can very much relate to. She seems to have figured all of this out a lot earlier than I myself did and I congratulate her with that.
Like her, I need people around me, regularly, but this also drains me, as I tend to give myself 100% to others and usually don't leave enough energy for myself to function properly.
So, after a while, I really need to recharge again, by being alone.
I sometimes wonder if this is the reason for me having been single most of my life, eventhough I feel and many people say, that I would be the ideal son-in-law and a great dad or partner.
This running out of energy tends to happen to me, over and over again and if I'm not careful, it can really burn me out. This sure happened, a bunch of times before, in the many jobs that I've had, in the past. Although, back then, I had no idea that it might have had to do with introvertedness. It depressed me. It probably didn't help that many people take my talkativeness as being social ( I like to think I am social ) and extraverted, something I might have copied from my twin sister, who is definitely an extraverted person, unlike me. She, though, seems to get energized by having people around her, all the time. Or, at least, most of the time.
I am gonna end this here, as I am still very tired and I need to chill and rest to be a chill enough babykidsitting uncle tomorrow.
What about you? Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extravert and if so, can you relate to this? Also, if you're an introvert, what are your tricks to deal with tiredness? How do you prevent yourself from draining your batteries, over and over again?
22% ( my favorite number ) of the payout to this post will go to @danielapevs
The image above it comes from Pexels and has been taken by Magda Ehlers.