Are you your first priority?
We hear a lot about putting ourselves first. For some of us, that may smack of being selfish. We may be encouraged by society to be in a supportive role for others.
The roles of the good parent, the unfailingly supportive partner, the loyal employee, the always generous friend are ones that may be touted as examples of how we should behave.
Certainly, if we’ve played one of these roles in the past, if we shift to more emphasis on ourselves, we may get pushback from those who were on the receiving end of our efforts. Why have we stopped caring? Don’t others matter to us anymore?
If we’ve begun to treat ourselves with a bit more self-care and self-respect, it’s not that we no longer care about others. It’s that we now care about ourselves, too. We’re not being selfish. We’re loving ourselves.
If we don’t put ourselves first, at least much of the time, we’ll eventually burn out. Helping others may begin to feel like drudgery rather than happy assistance. We may eventually experience a downturn in our personal health and well-being.
Sacrificing ourselves in favor of others is a finite game. We can only persist in it for so long before we begin to suffer. Those who have experienced us in caregiving role also may not feel comfortable caring for us in return. It may not seem like the tacit arrangement we had with them previously.
Today’s message reminds me to replenish my well-being regularly. When I take good care of myself, I have more energy to be happy and will find I can help others without feeling drained.
Please reflect and share. Do you put yourself first in a healthy way?