become a priority in your life

So where do you fall on your priority scale?? If you’re anything like I used to be – I had myself way down on the bottom next to the house plants. I wanted everyone to be happy, well taken care of, thriving even!! — and then that meant I was doing a good job at being ME.

In the meantime, I was struggling with my own health issues, had anxiety through the roof, a major drinking problem, and felt like I was never measuring up. So I would clean the house more, shop more, parent more, drink more…the cycle kept going and going until it about killed me. I never stopped to consider that I should probably put down the laundry basket and do some freaking yoga. Wouldn’t that be selfish of me? Wouldn’t that mean I wasn’t doing a good job being a wife or mom?

Finally, I decided to try therapy and I’m so glad I did. The very first thing my therapist asked me was, you guessed it, what are you doing to take care of YOU? Then she blew my mind my explaining the simple concept of putting on my mask first so that I could show up better for everyone else. Slowly I started putting myself first, which felt very very uncomfortable, but I kept going.

And you know what happened? It changed my life. When I became first priority my entire life changed for the better. I began to feel things like joy, contentment, gratitude, and excitement. My family benefited tremendously from my new way of living, and they still are. I no longer feel selfish for taking care of me. I no longer feel uncomfortable saying no for my own benefit. I’m a priority in MY life.

Think of some ways you can make yourself a priority and please take care of yourself FIRST my sweet friend. We all need you to be at your best, but more importantly, YOU need YOU.