How do you recharge your battery?

Do you love vacations with your family? Being together with your loved ones 24 hours a day? Me too, but after 2 weeks at the latest, I long to get back to my everyday life. I can hardly wait until we are back home. Strange, isn’t it? I didn’t understand that for a long time, because I love my family, I like to see other places and cultures and I like to be inspired. But there are clear limits to the extent and length of my trips.

I have now learned that this is related to being an introvert or an extrovert. And I definitely belong to the introverts! There is a wide spectrum from very introverted to very extroverted. People can be anywhere on the scale, which means there are also people who are balanced in the middle, but most tend to be on one side or the other.

How do you know where you are on this scale? Ask yourself where you get your energy.

Do you feel good when you have a lot of time to yourself? What were you like as a child? Could you sit alone in your room for hours with a book or a craft? Are you refreshed when you can tackle and get something done by yourself? And do you need rest after times when you have been with other people, even if you like them very much? Then I welcome you to the Introverts!

Or are you recharged, excited, and full of energy when you’ve been with other people? Were you rarely found alone as a child and did you avoid being alone? Did you really suffer from lockdown? Do you thrive at parties? Then you belong to the extroverted species.

This is innate and does not change in the course of life. It is a great advantage to be able to assess yourself. I would also like to mention: Introverted is not the same as being shy – shyness is a behavior that can be changed, introversion remains. It does not need to be changed and cannot be changed.

For a long time I thought there was something wrong and that I had a problem because I had such a need to be alone. My husband thought I was rejecting him because I didn’t want to be with him as much as he wanted to be with me. But he is just more extroverted! Understanding this has helped us both a lot. He benefits from it when I can withdraw. Because then I have more energy, for him too! He, on the other hand, can meet with other people and not only rely on me to fill his energy level.

Since I understand where my energy comes from and since I accept that as good, I can communicate my needs better and see that my energy level stays high. I know that my strengths lie in reflecting, formulating and thinking and that I therefore also need time to make decisions. I am profound, attentive and creative. My husband is extroverted and is more of a “doer”. He doesn’t need to have everything planned out in his head before he takes action. He is sociable, spontaneous and adventurous. Both “sides” have strengths and weaknesses and the better we know them, the better we can deal with them!

God has designed us like that and it is good! No two people in the world are the same. I suppose God made it that way so that we can live all facets of his image. Both are valuable and good! We should appreciate all “types” and let them complement us. And you and I should value ourselves just as we are!

When we believe in God, we have the privilege of being able to draw strength from Him. For this, introverts retreat inward to find God. They disappear into the “quiet chamber”, every distraction is too much. The extroverts, on the other hand, get their energy from the outside, find God in nature, and are inspired and filled. No matter how we receive his strength, God is pleased with it. Let yourself be filled!