While listening to the flight crew give emergency instructions on a recent plane trip, one of them stuck out in my mind. “In case of a loss of cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will drop down from the overhead compartment. Please put on your own oxygen mask before attempting to help others with theirs,” or words to that effect.
That got me to thinking… Those instructions are vital not only in a mid-air emergency, but in our everyday lives, as well. If we don’t put on our own oxygen mask first, and take care or our basic needs, how can we expect to be of use or service to anyone else? What makes us think that we can function without air? While we might very well be Superman or WonderWoman, we still have to breathe.
Being a woman, it is especially easy to fall into that rut of putting everyone else first – I hear it all the time. But it happens so insidiously, most of us are barely aware that we are slowly suffocating the life out of ourselves. And we are always doing it so selflessly, too. We are taking care of family, kids, parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, bosses, co-workers, teachers, home, school projects, sports teams, church groups.
It never starts out to be too much, but added all together, it slowly becomes more than we can (or should) handle. And do most of us say so? Of course not! I grew up in the era when women were striving to do it all – have it all – shatter the glass ceiling. To turn around and say that we couldn’t possibly handle it all would have been heresy…God forbid…turn in your brassiere!
So where does that leave us? Usually at the bottom of our own To-Do list, (if we even make the list at all). Might I make a few suggestions to help put the air back in your lungs and your sails? We must make it a priority to take a break from the hectic over-scheduled days that are driving us further away from ourselves. “Schedule” it, if you must; but just do it, at least for a few minutes every day.
- read
- meditate
- look at nature
- get a massage
- do Reiki
- journal
- learn a new language
- pick up an instrument
- pet a dog/cat
- take a walk
When you do not take the time to be relaxed and refreshed, you are less able to focus and less capable of making good choices and decisions, not only for yourself, but for your family and co-workers, too. Your health and well-being suffers. Then what value are you?
First and foremost, we are human “beings”, not human “doings”. We were designed for periods of “fight or flight”, to be followed by “rest and relaxation”. Make it a priority to put some of the R & R back in your life and watch the positive changes that will develop.
When in doubt, remember the words of the flight crew… “Put on your own oxygen mask first.”
Be well ~
Shawn Marie Howe
