Putting Ourselves First

When my oldest son was born, I was an Air Force officer at Blytheville AFB in Arkansas, running the military dining facilities, with husband stationed on the West Coast. I went from a day working with troops whose average educational level was 5th grade, home to a baby. One day, I realized I was going to the Base Thrift Shop several times a week, not because I needed anything they had to sell, but because it gave me an opportunity to talk to the women volunteering there and actually have an adult conversation! I realized that I had been so absorbed with work and the baby, that I wasn’t taking care of myself. My “wakeup” call made me re-evaluate my life and decide I needed to pay attention to myself. Kind of like when the airline stewardess gives her safety briefing at the start of a flight and tells you, if the oxygen masks come down, PUT YOURS ON FIRST. If you don’t, you will most likely pass out before you can finish helping the people around you put on theirs. If you don’t take care of yourself, you won't be able to take care of someone else. For many of us, that’s really really difficult. Especially for women. We were taught as children to put others first. We put our families first, our church, volunteer work, friends, but very very seldom do we ever put ourselves first, and when we do, we feel guilty about it. It takes a real effort to change our perspective and learn to put ourselves first, but when we learn to do that, we learn that acknowledging our own self worth by putting ourselves first, is often the first step in learning that we have a voice and that our opinions and action matter.