Our self-care improves how well we care for others. We may have heard, “If you’re traveling with a small child, put your oxygen mask on before putting your child’s mask on.” The rationale is that we cannot help our child if we pass out from lack of oxygen. We may have also heard, “love your neighbor as yourself.” My personal and professional experience has taught me that many of us believe that self-care or self-love is selfish, or we do not have time for self-care. I have noticed that when stress increases, our self-care is the first thing we stop. That is we say, “No” to ourselves before we say “No” to a demand from someone else. Many of us will say a reluctant “Yes” before estimating whether we have the capacity to meet the need before us.
How many of us work through lunch, multi-task, rush because we are late, feel overwhelmed by, or accept chronic stress, insomnia, pain, burdens as “normal.” However, everybody gets 168-hours every week. This is enough time to sleep 8-hours per night, work 40-hours per week, spend 10-hours per week commuting, eat for 30-minutes 3-times per day, spend 30-minutes per day exercising, totaling 120-hours. If we are organized this leave us an additional 48-hours per week to rest, enjoy our relationships, pursue a hobby, recreation, etc. Promoting our wellbeing and living a life of the ages is possible, but it requires that we first care for ourselves. We are all more stressed these days. Our self-care has never been more critically important.