Self-care tips & tools: Self-care bingo

One of my biggest realization about my introversion was the fact that I needed more time to recharge after a long, busy and social working week. Then I just had to figure out what in fact recharging meant for me.

I have many colleagues and friends looking forward to closing the work week and going out with friends, go to bars or restaurants to chat all night, to concerts or other social events. At times, I enjoy that too, but I came to realize that if after a long workweek I would go out to shop, to dine, to chat, to enjoy a loud concerts, I would feel pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend and definitely not ready to start the next workweek. At first, I thought something is wrong with me. How can it be that others enjoy spending time with big groups and being out and about all weekend? And for me in fact, one social outing is enough and the rest of the time, I enjoy to be with myself, my partner, my dog, chill, read, go outside, watch a good movie. It took me some time to understand that this is me being an introvert.

I have a rather active job, requiring me to interact, solve problems, it is a dynamic and changing environment where you are not only expected to be sharp all the time, but also handle complex social interactions, office politics, or even conflicts. So by the end of the week, what really recharges me is slowing down, taking the moment for myself, be in my world, enjoy nature, sports, hobbies. It is completely OK to do this, I realized. In fact, if I didn't do this, I would very quickly burn out. It allows me not only to recharge after the work week but also to build up some energy for enjoyable social gatherings, busy places and activities.

After I embraced my way of operating and needing the space and time to spend with myself, I started to consciously fill up my weekends and evenings with more and more of the activities that helped me relax and recharge my batteries.  Naturally, there are days when I can dedicate a lot more time for myself and days, when I only have maybe 30 minutes left to do something on my own. At first I had this urge to always carve out a good amount of time from my day and perhaps got a bit inflexible with already planning up the recharge time during the week. I had to realize that while planning was important, and having a clear intention to set aside time for myself was required, I needed to be realistic and match the time and activities to my routine and availabilities.

So I decided to take a different approach. I made myself a Self-care bingo for a month. This contained activities that I knew I like to do and that would give me shorter or longer times to recharge. And to recharge on my own way. I tried to add solo activities as well as things like meeting up with friends, but not pressure myself to having to do this every week. Ultimately, depending on the time I had I could choose from the list what I wanted to do, what felt good at that point and it certainly was great to check off an item from my list. It felt a lot more realistic to achieve them over a period of month and easy to find the time for all activities.

I found many benefits of doing the Self-care bingo:

• It felt like a quest, which made me more motivated to get them done.

• It helped me explore a whole variety of things that helped me to recharge. Of course it isn't necessary to always do different stuff, however for me it was a nice way to keep things exciting.

• Having the activities spread over a larger period of time helped me to feel less pressured about 'having to do them'. Of course it was never a must, but having a monthly cycle allowed me to keep things relaxed and always do something that felt good at that moment.

• With the bingo it is easier to set boundaries to doing these activities. If you struggle to allow yourself to take the time for yourself, it can be an efficient way of saying: 'I am allowed to do this much me-time in the month'.

• It can be a great way to challenge yourself with some activities that may push you a bit out of your comfort zone. The main goal remains self care. On the other hand, you can add one or two activities that you wouldn't normally do to explore how it feels and try out new ways or recharging. For example, I may have planned a solo day trip of some sort for the month. I could take the train to a different city, take a walk, go to a museum, have lunch - all by myself. I could also do a day trip to an adventure park with a climbing forest area. Even if at first it is a bit scary, I would ease in, have fun and feel fully energetic by the end.

Have you tried a self care bingo before? What would be your activities for it? Share in the comments.