Why Should I Take Better Care Of Myself Instead Of Just Others?

[Anastasia13]

Give me some reasons to take better care of myself and not tend to what others want/need when say I could use a good night's rest or a chance to take actually good care of my life?

[CatherineM]

When you are on a plane, they tell you if there is a depressurization, you should put your own oxygen mask on first before helping your child. That is not a mother's first instinct, but bottom line, you can't help your child if you become incapacitated.

When I am tired, I make poor decisions. I've had some pretty horrific injuries in my life. Most happened when I was tired, in a hurry, or mad. None of those states of mind are conducive to clear headed, rational thinking.

Rates of infection for HIV, or unwanted pregnancies go up dramatically when the person is intoxicated. Why, because impaired judgement makes us forget to protect ourselves. It makes us take risks we normally wouldn't, and it makes it hard to see a risk coming. I did some work with Death Row inmates. I never met a person there who had been both sane and sober when they committed their crimes.

Studies have shown that not getting proper rest leads to higher rates of type two diabetes, impaired cognitive functioning, especially working memory and logical and practical thinking. Sleep deprivation leads to higher rates of heart disease, and mental illness. It impairs our ability to put emotional events into a proper perspective leading to us not being able to respond to the event in a controlled suitable way.

Lack of sleep screws up hormones in our bodies that repair things while we sleep. It can adversely affect your immune system. It can make your body less able to heal itself. Someone who has been awake for 19 hours has a driving impairment worse than someone with a blood alcohol level of .05.

Lastly, any mother will tell you that they often forgoe taking care of themselves because they are so busy taking care of everyone else. You can only do that so long before you crash. I did it for years and my health suffered greatly. Once I realized that I had to take care of myself first in order to help anyone else, my whole life changed for the better.

You are at an age when you are being pulled in a million directions. When you are that busy, your world is very noisy. How could you hear God call to you? God talks to us more readily when we are calm and quiet so we can actually hear him.