WHAT YOUR CALENDAR SAYS ABOUT YOU

I attended a retreat several years ago.  During one session, we were assigned the task of sticking little gold stars on all of the dates in our calendars where we’d done something just for ourselves.  Like I said, this was a few years ago and before we used our phones as planners.  Anyway, very few stars were used. 

The purpose of the exercise was to determine how much time we were spending taking care of ourselves. If we don’t take care of ourselves, by actively seeking our own happiness, it’s impossible to authentically take care of others.  In my experience, that doesn’t stop my clients from trying to take care of everyone and everything at the expense of themselves.  Oh how they try.  

In fact, as I write this, I am becoming painfully aware that by not tending to and balancing my own days with attention to my happiness, I am still guilty of this as well.  We try to bypass this little, but vital principle of life to the point of exhaustion.  Self-denial is not the way to care for others, much less ourselves.

Authentically Caring For Others  

Filling up your own (emotional, physical, and psychological) reserves and taking good care of you is the best way to care for others.  It is the only way to have more to give to those you love. 

Think of the last time you had an abundance of something…more than you knew what to do with.  Perhaps it was a bumper crop from your vegetable garden, or you got such a great sale on something that you bought the store out?  Didn’t you enjoy sharing it much more than you would have if you’d had a limited supply?

Follow the Airlines’ Example

Self-care means giving from abundance, not lack…and from joy, not the resentment of sacrifice. Even airlines insist that if the oxygen mask comes down, you must put it over your mouth first, before helping your children or others with their masks.  If you can’t breathe, be it due to lack of oxygen, joy, patience, or peace of mind, you can’t authentically help anyone else. 

I have decided to do better at walking my talk by finding time for some form of joy/fun/play each and every day.  I would love it if you help hold me accountable by following me on my Facebook Business Page where I am posting daily about what I am doing to incorporate daily joy into my life and how it’s going (click the “f” in the darkest blue box to the left of this blog post, then “like” my business page) .   They say it only takes 21 days to form a new habit.  My goal is balancing my work life with some form of daily fun so I’ll be posting about it for the next 21 days.  I hope you will support me by commenting and cheering me on.  Why not take a peek at your calendar, and if there aren’t enough star-worthy dates, start creating some by doing this with me? 

Let’s Get YOU on Your Calendar 

Get some help making the switch from giving from lack, to giving from abundance.  It isn’t as easy as it sounds. Schedule your FREE EXPLORATORY SESSION here.  I promise, there will be no hard sell.  I have no personal attachment to the outcome of our conversation beyond your feeling better for our having had it. For more information about living authentically, click here and get your FREE copy of my “GUIDE TO AUTHENTIC LIVING: Ten Things People Who Live Authentically Know And Do…And So Can You.”