Regardless of how you refer to experiencing social exhaustion, whether you call it a drained social battery, or all out of social energy, when you’ve hit your social interaction limit you need ways to bounce back. Knowing your social battery is drained isn’t enough, though. When you’re completely depleted it’s important to understand how to recover, before the exhaustion negatively impacts your health and well-being.
A Drained Social Battery
A drained social battery can make one feel physically tired, however, those who end up with drained social batteries aren’t always aware of the impacts to their mental health. If you’re feeling physically exhausted after most of your interactions in social settings, and you aren’t spending enough time recovering from socializing, it starts to affect your thoughts, feelings, and further harms you physically.
Anxious thoughts can start to invade your mind if your energy has been used up and not built back up. Panic attacks might hit you even days after a social event, if you haven’t spent time recharging your battery. When you can’t handle regular day-to-day activities and stresses, you probably need to spend time restoring your mind, body and soul.
Never ignore a drained social battery. Pushing through is not always the way to recover and grow. Take the time to recharge.
Recovering from Social Exhaustion
I’ve touched on what a social battery is before, and shared a few options for recharging your low social battery. However, it’s such an important topic for those negatively affected by social activities, I’m digging in a little deeper this time.
Put Your Tech Away
Unplug. Put all your tech away. Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube all seem harmless, and appear to be great ways to zone out and entertain yourself. In reality, it’s just feeding your need to never miss anything and to compare your life to other people’s lives.
Who can really replenish their soul if you’re comparing yourself to other people on Instagram? Just remember all those pretty images aren’t usually the true story, and those people have mundane lives and 9-to-5s, too. You’re not missing out on anything when you unplug and put your screens away for a few days. It will all be there when you return to your regular scheduled programming.
Plus, being readily available to friends, family, and work is not helping you recharge. Let people fend for themselves for a few days, and focus on resting and recuperating. You’re worth the effort and the time.
Exercise
I know. You probably rolled your eyes and shook your head with a hard NOPE to this one. However, it doesn’t have to be a workout with lots of equipment and a video. Simply stretching or walking outside can help your body and mind. If you’re lucky enough to have a pool, take a swim. Exercise improves your blood flow, and how quickly nutrients feed your muscles and organs. Physical activity helps improve your overall energy, which then helps recharge your inner social battery.
Lazy Days are NOT a Sin
How many times have you been told spending the day on the couch is lazy and equivalent to sin. I’m here to tell you that’s nonsense! Sometimes lounging on the couch, taking lots of naps, and binging on comedies is just what a mind and body needs to recover from a whole lot of social activity!
Take the day and don’t feel guilty about it. Combine this with turning your phone off and leaving your laptop in another room, and you’ll have the best scenario for a full charge on that battery.
Music
Shut out the world, sit someplace comfy cozy, and turn on your favorite tunes. Whatever music you know will improve your mood. Could be Elvis, could be some Shania Twain, I mean who can not feel great when you hear Shania sing “Let’s Go Girls”? It makes you want to get up and kick a door down, am I right? Throw on some Janet Jackson, the Queen of Pop and the original bada** taking the world on and winning.
Play it loud, dance around, or just sit and listen. But focus on the music, and really feel it. You’ll recharge in no time!
Journal Writing
Spend time writing down how you feel, why you feel, and that’s it. Write things down to release it from your mind so they don’t become obsessive thoughts weighing you down. When your energy is low, you’re tired and unable to focus on anything but negative ideas. They just continue to run through your mind with their dirty little feet, leaving huge footprints everywhere.
Write the thoughts down, and leave them there. Don’t give those dirty feet a chance to run around causing a huge mess in your mind.
Work With Your Hands
Keep your idle hands busy. Create something just for you. Knit, draw, bake, or cook. Hell, build something from all those pieces of wood you’ve been saving in your garage “just in case”. When you feel like you’ve made progress in something you’re creating, it feeds your soul and a full soul results in a much fuller charge for your social battery.
Spending time doing things for yourself BY YOURSELF - whether it’s listening to music or building something or even planning out your next vacation - feeds your battery, so you’re able to enjoy your life and gear up for the next social interaction in the distant future. No one can take care of you better than YOU.
Handle Instead of Always Having to Recover
Recovering from social encounters can take much more time than you want to spend on it. The more energy expelled during a social event, the more time you’ll need to spend building back your energy levels.
Wouldn’t it be great if you knew how to handle social gatherings so you can avoid the huge social energy suck-age? A professional can help distinguish what significantly zaps your energy, and how to handle yourself in order to reduce your recovery time once the situation is over.
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