I am certain that many of you have traveled by airline flying countless times in your lives. We sort of zone out when the standard instructions are heard on the overhead before the flight takes off. One of these lines is: “In the event of decompression, put your mask on first before assisting others.” The reason is that if the parent loses consciousness, he/she will not be able to help the children place the life-saving oxygen masks on.
This admonition can most certainly be expanded to many other aspects of our lives other than limited to airline travel. In this ever-expanding society of dual working households, there is precious time to focus on ourselves. For those working Moms and Dads out there, almost every waking minute is spent focusing on the children’s needs, work responsibilities and perhaps other expanded family members’ issues.
To be in the most optimal health as possible, we all must find the time to:
- Shop, prepare and ingest healthy foods as opposed to eating processed and/or fast foods
- Exercise
- Engage in activities that provide us with mental health
- Get the proper amount of sleep
There are many other bullet points that can be added to this list.
Now, reality is such that there is simply not enough time In the day to achieve all of our “self-care” wish list items. With that being the case, then one must choose, in priority order, some of the focused activities that help us achieve the highest levels of health.
It is not selfish or cruel to your loved ones to spend time on “YOU”. Especially for you working mothers out there, do not feel guilty about carving out that “self-care” time. As per the advice given to us by our friendly (well, not so friendly these days) flight attendants: “Place the oxygen mask on YOU first”.
And with “flying” alluded to in this post, does anyone out there remember the musci group “The Fifth Dimension”?
